Titov announced the risk of violating the new law on state control when adopting the budget

Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs Boris Titov raised the question of how the projected volume of administrative fines included in the parameters of the federal budget is related to the assessment of business activities. He asked Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to instruct control agencies to clarify this issue.

According to Mr. Titov, the reason for the appeal was the explanatory note to the draft federal budget for 2024 and for the planning period 2025–2026. It contains an article for planned budget revenues, “Fines for administrative offenses in the field of business activities and the activities of self-regulatory organizations,” containing “specific expected figures for the amount of fines collected.”

The Ombudsman recalled that the law on state control enshrines a complete and direct ban on the “stick system”, in which the assessment of the effectiveness of the control body depends on the amount of fines and the number of persons subject to control and supervisory measures. He admitted that “the publication of plans for collecting fines is a tribute to tradition.”

“However, many representatives of the business community perceived it as an indication of the volume of fines, the collection of which must be ensured in order to fulfill the revenue side of the budget… I would like to hope that in the near future there will be clarifications from the control authorities themselves about whether they have appropriate “industry plans” for collecting fines,” noted Boris Titov (quoted by Interfax).

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin saidthat the number of business inspections in Russia in 2022 has decreased to a historical minimum. By data Ministry of Economy, since the beginning of the year, the number of business inspections has decreased by 15%. At the beginning of October “New People” contributed a bill to halve fines for businesses under 17 articles of the Code of Administrative Offences.

Laura Keffer