MOSCOW, March 2 (RAPSI) — The Presidential Business Rights Commissioner Boris Titov has submitted his proposals as to a new cycle of measures aimed at supporting of entrepreneurship to First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov.

The Business Ombudsman reminded that according to the latest survey among entrepreneurs, 80% of enterprises in 2020 faced a fall in revenues, the same number noted a strong decline in demand, 11% plan to initiate bankruptcy proceedings in 2021.

Thus, the most demanded support measures among those named by the survey participants were a lighter tax burden (or a new tax restructuring), stimulation of demand, new direct subsidies in the amount of one minimum wage per employee per every month within the period when restrictions were in force, new soft loans, and a change in the procedure for classifying companies as the most affected by the pandemic, that is the replacement of the principle based on the Russian National Classifier of Types of Economic Activity to the principle based on the fall of revenues by more than 30%.

The Business Ombudsman proposed to carry out a tax amnesty envisaging that back taxes and fees are to be defined as irrecoverable debts as those were registered on February 1, 2021, for companies with a turnover of up to 2 billion rubles ($27 million at the current exchange rate), whose revenue in 2020 decreased by more than 30% compared to 2019, and for the rest of the companies if their revenues decreased by 50% or more over the same period. Also, after the lending program at 2% for the recovery of activities is completed, to write off 50% of loans to those borrowers who failed to retain 80% or more of their employees as compared to the respective numbers as on June 1, 2020 (according to the number of employees they could retain).

In addition, Titov declared that it was necessary to introduce a moratorium as to any increase in the cadastral value for years 2020 – 2021. The Business Ombudsman also called for the introduction of a special tax regime for the catering industry based on the simplified taxation system (STS - catering) with a progressive scale: rates of 6% and 15% (on the bases "income" and "income minus expenses") up to the turnover threshold of 800 million rubles ($10.7 million), and for a turnover of 800 million rubles to 2 billion rubles ($27 million) at the rates of 8% and 20%; at the same time the permitted number of employees was to be increased by up to 1000 people. The Ombudsman suggested to discuss the possibility of introduction of similar regimes for other industries.

The Business Rights Commissioner also considers it necessary to extend for one year the deferral for the payments made by small and medium-sized businesses for municipal or state properties on the rent-to-own principle introduced in 2020, with a general extension of the payment terms for the period of the granted deferrals.

Besides, Titov proposed to extend the period for applying for preferential terms as to the extension of lease agreements for tenants of state and municipal real estate up to January 1, 2022.