TOP “International” – Newspaper Kommersant No. 41 (7486) dated 03/13/2023

To attract partners and technologies from friendly countries, Russia will create international territories of advanced development (ITOR). The corresponding package of bills has been prepared by the Ministry for the Development of the Far East. The new regime provides for significant benefits compared to conventional ASEZs: zeroing taxes on income, property, land and transport for 20 years, as well as the application of not only Russian, but also foreign legislation. An essential feature of the MTOR is that residents of these territories can only produce high-tech products according to a list determined by the government.

The Ministry for the Development of the Far East has decided on the parameters of new preferential regimes – international territories of advanced development. The emergence of MTOR to attract partners and technologies from friendly countries was announced in September 2022 at the Eastern Economic Forum. As Aleksey Chekunkov, head of the Ministry for the Development of the Far East, explained, the creation of a new type of TOP will simplify the movement of goods and labor between friendly countries, make payments in national currencies and ensure investment protection. It was reported that the idea of ​​MTOR was discussed with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, India, Vietnam, from the Russian side, proposals were submitted by the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, the Amur Region, Transbaikalia and the Jewish Autonomous Region.

A feature of international ASEZs will be the application on their territory of not only Russian, but also foreign legislation, in particular, construction and industrial standards of the technology supplier country will be recognized.

As follows from the published package of bills, such special ASEZs will be created by decision of the government or on the basis of an international agreement. A new company that plans to make capital investments in the amount of at least 500 million rubles, as in ordinary TOPs, can become a resident of the MTOR. Activities in international ASEZs will be limited only to the production of high-tech products with high added value. The list of products will be determined by the government – probably, we will talk about positions that are critically important for Russia. It is stipulated that the procedure for maintaining the register of residents, which will also be determined by the Cabinet, may provide for the closure of public access to information in order to protect investors from sanctions.

Benefits for residents will be somewhat wider than in regular ASEZs, in which concessions are designed for ten years. This is explained by the fact that “in the context of the deteriorating geopolitical situation, it is necessary to provide for new measures to support” business. The chosen preferential regime is similar to the one in force in the Kuril Islands (see “Kommersant” dated March 2): for 20 years, residents will be exempt from taxes on income and property, on transport and land, for the same period it is planned to reduce insurance premium rates from 30% to 7.6%.

Other exemptions include the possibility of applying the free customs zone procedure, which involves importing goods without paying duties and taxes and without applying non-tariff regulation measures, not applying the law on currency control to residents, as well as the ability to carry out public procurement of certain types of high-tech goods from an MTOR resident as the sole supplier .

By 2033, 30 billion rubles are expected to be attracted to projects on the territory of international ASEZs. investments and creation of 1 thousand jobs. The estimated growth of the gross product of the region in which the MTOR will be located may be 38.3 billion rubles. As follows from the financial and economic justification for the projects, the shortfall in income of social funds due to the reduction in insurance premiums in the conditional MTOR (based on the involvement of about 20 residents) will amount to 0.65 billion rubles. in 2027-2033 (until 2027, as expected, the projects will still be at the investment stage). Possible budget losses due to tax incentives in 2024-2033 are estimated at 8.45 billion rubles.

Evgenia Kryuchkova