There will be no discounted cinema for single-industry towns

As part of the support for single-industry towns, the Ministry of Economy proposes to exclude from the available measures co-financing from VEB.RF of the social infrastructure of single-industry municipalities due to the irrelevance of such a measure. The department intends to concentrate funds on supporting projects that can enhance the economic potential of single-industry towns, and not provoke an increase in their budget expenditures. It is also planned to extend purely economic support measures to 45 municipalities that formally lost the status of single-industry towns in connection with the transformation into municipal districts.

The Ministry of Economy proposes to reconsider the approaches to the support of single-industry towns by the federal center – the department has developed a draft government decree that excludes co-financing the construction and reconstruction of social infrastructure from the set of tools available for such settlements. We are talking about the irrevocable allocation of VEB.RF funds for such facilities – up to 750 million rubles. and up to 50% of the project cost.

As Dmitry Vakhrukov, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economy, explains, “in the current conditions, state support for single-industry towns should be focused on economic projects that ensure the creation of new jobs in single-industry towns with the most difficult socio-economic situation.”

The very mechanism of co-financing of social facilities, as follows from the explanatory note, turned out to be irrelevant and unclaimed. VEB.RF clarifies that over the entire period of this instrument, only one agreement has been concluded on co-financing social infrastructure in the amount of more than 100 million rubles.

It should be noted that the essence of the problem is that social infrastructure is inherently unprofitable investment projects that do not affect the economic performance of single-industry towns, but form long-term budgetary obligations of regions and municipalities. From the very beginning of the search for a solution to the problem of single-industry municipalities, officials have repeatedly admitted that for many of them the relocation of the population to more economically active municipalities would be justified, but the norms of social security for the population force them to maintain social facilities and budgetary employment, which only preserves the depressive state of such settlements. However, there is no talk of a complete rejection of state funding for new social facilities in single-industry towns, but the decision on this will be made by the regions depending on the state of their budgets and the expected effect, and without gratuitous co-financing by VEB.

If the proposals of the Ministry of Economy are approved, the set of measures to support single-industry towns will become purely economic.

In the development of this logic, some of these measures are planned to be extended, in particular, benefits for paying insurance premiums to TOPs in single-industry towns, where the unemployment rate is twice the national average (0.7% – there are nine such TOPs). The most demanded measure, according to the Ministry of Economy, is the issuance of small concessional loans, up to 250 million rubles, under a bank guarantee or a guarantee of the SME Corporation – their issuance is planned to be made more efficient by simplifying the approval procedures. According to VEB.RF, in 2021–2022, the group signed 26 agreements for the issuance of such loans for up to RUB 250 million, and two more in 2023.

It should be noted that the support measures themselves were also reformatted in 2022: interest-free loans were replaced with preferential loans at a rate of 1% (for small projects from 5 million to 1 billion rubles) or at 5% (from 250 million to 1 billion rubles). Interest-free loans remained only for single-industry towns in which a federal emergency regime was introduced: from 5 million to 50 billion rubles. for current activities and for a period of up to four years, as well as from 250 million rubles. and for up to 15 years for capital investments. Other support measures include non-refundable co-financing of infrastructure facilities required for the implementation of investment projects in the amount of up to RUB 750 million. and within 95% of the project cost.

The Ministry of Economy also proposes to “establish the succession of single-industry towns after the transformation of the municipality” in order to preserve the possibility for them to receive support through VEB.RF.

Let us explain that in connection with such a transformation, single-industry towns lose their status, although they continue to be listed in the list of single-industry towns; now 45 out of 321 single-industry municipal formations are in this position. According to the project, if in 2023 the state corporation does not receive subsidies for these purposes, it will be able to allocate up to 5% of the funds received this year from the repayment of loans and interest.

Evgenia Kryuchkova, Oleg Sapozhkov