The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill establishing criteria for determining small technology companies

The State Duma adopted on Tuesday in the first reading a government bill introducing the concept of a “small technology company” (MTC) into the legislation and establishing criteria for determining such organizations. This is necessary for the introduction of state support measures for the MTK – a set of tax preferences, preferential loans, a simplified procedure for purchasing products from such companies and other preferences, which is currently being developed. The White House hopes that on the way to the technological sovereignty of the Russian Federation, small companies will help generate and develop innovative ideas.

The bill on the development of technology companies, developed by the Ministry of Economy and adopted yesterday by the State Duma in the first reading, should involve small organizations in the work to achieve technological sovereignty for the Russian Federation. Establishing criteria for defining small technology companies in the legislation will allow such organizations to take advantage of future state support measures (see Kommersant of May 2). Earlier, the secretariat of First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov explained to Kommersant that the main function of the ITC is the generation and development of new ideas in the field of technological innovation.

As Maxim Kolesnikov, deputy head of the Ministry of Economy, explained in the State Duma, now the government is discussing the “outline” of measures to support the MTC – perhaps they will appear in the bill at the second reading. Preliminarily, we are talking about providing preferential bank guarantees or loans without bank guarantees, as well as grants and support for so-called business angels (private investors who are ready to invest in startups at early stages). Tax incentives, a simplified procedure for purchasing MTK products, and easier access to research and production infrastructure are also possible.

According to the bill, in order to obtain the status of a small technology company, a business will need to meet four criteria: the amount of revenue is not higher than the threshold set by the government; type of activity from the list approved for technology companies; compliance with a certain level of scientific and technical potential; the availability of opportunities for the introduction of innovative technologies. Also, the ITC will have to be in the appropriate register.

According to Maxim Kolesnikov, about 9,000 companies now meet these criteria. The Technological Development Concept approved by the government last week (see Kommersant of May 26) provides that by 2030 there will be 20,000 MTCs in the country, 144 of them with revenues of more than 2 billion rubles. (there were 28 such organizations in 2022).

During the adoption of the bill, deputy Vladimir Sipyagin (LDPR) suggested that the prepared set of criteria for the MTC would allow large holdings to transfer part of the technologies to controlled legal entities, providing them with revenue through domestic demand – thus, due to state support measures, it would be possible to reduce the cost of production. In this regard, the deputy asked the deputy minister if the project had mechanisms to protect against the emergence of possible “quasi-technological” companies. In response, Maxim Kolesnikov promised to take these risks into account during the second reading of the draft, when the mechanism for examining the activities of companies will be presented, among other things.

Venera Petrova