The agenda includes additional measures to ensure sustainable development of the economy during the coronavirus epidemic, allocating funds for incentive payments to medical workers.
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Good morning, colleagues,
Government Meeting
Let’s begin the meeting of the Government. Yesterday Vladimir Putin proposed new support measures for the people, businesses, regions and the economy in general to be provided during the coronavirus epidemic. Today we will discuss the plan of additional measures to ensure the sustainable development of the economy during the spread of the coronavirus.
Let me remind you that the measures we have already adopted were aimed at social aid for citizens and support of small and medium-sized businesses, which received various tax respites. The size of insurance payments was decreased from 30 to 15 percent for small and medium-sized businesses that pay salaries amounting to at least one minimum wage. Decisions were made to eliminate additional expenses related to administrative procedures, such as non-application of penalties, a moratorium on inspections and simplification of various procedures. Measures proposed by the President yesterday include additional direct financial support for citizens and small and medium-sized businesses in the worst hit industries. They are aimed at supporting employment and incomes of the employed and temporarily unemployed. In order to do this, the Government will expand the list of these industries and include the trade in non-food goods in this list, among other things.
Starting from May, small and medium-sized businesses and individual entrepreneurs from the list of the worst hit industries will receive corresponding payments. The main thing is that companies that will receive them have to preserve at least 90 percent of the staff they employed on 1 April. The size of the payment will be calculated considering the total number of employees at the organisation as of early April and based on the amount of 12,130 roubles per month for each employee.
Moreover, companies will be able to use these funds both to address priority tasks and to pay wages. It will be possible to apply for these payments to the tax service using the “Taxpayer’s Personal Account” service if you are a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur, or by mail in the near future, from 1 May.
Businesses will receive the first payments starting from May 18, in line with the President’s instructions. I ask the Federal Tax Service to work out the application procedure and to inform businesses about everything necessary as soon as possible. The programme will involve over 500,000 small and medium-sized businesses with three million employees in total.
We are also preparing an extension of the noninterest loan programmes to pay wages for enterprises in the worst hit industries, with 75 percent of such loans guaranteed by VEB.RF, as the President said. As of today, five banks are taking part in the programme, and another 25 will join soon. They are examining over 3.5 billion roubles worth of applications. But this is not enough. The programme is designed to have 150 billion roubles. I am once again asking banks and heads of financial organisations to take note of this measure and join this programme as soon as possible.
Another decision is to support backbone companies. They must be provided with soft loans to replenish working capital. The real rate should be lower than the market rate by the Bank of Russia’s key rate. Moreover, half of the loan will be secured by guarantees from the federal budget. Of course, such support from the state can be obtained if employment is maintained as far as possible.
We have fulfilled the President’s earlier instruction – we have submitted to the State Duma a number of amendments to the Tax Code, which concern the calculation of the income tax rate. In particular, they raise the basic income from 15 million to 25 million roubles, and tax on the amount below this figure can be paid once a quarter instead of once a month. In addition, tax can be calculated based on current income, and not the income for the previous quarter. Businesses will be able to take into account the real situation, and not what happened last year.
The amendments submitted to the State Duma also include an exemption from the personal income tax for those payments to doctors who are now combating the spread of the coronavirus at hospitals or in ambulances, those who are saving lives and people’s health. The President instructed us to do so.
We have developed a number of solutions to support the regions, including the allocation of additional funds to them, which will help fulfil social obligations to citizens and support the economy. I will ask the Ministry of Finance to accelerate the development of relevant acts so that these funds arrive in the regions as soon as possible.
We have also submitted to the State Duma amendments to the Budget Code, which will allow the regions to have more flexibility in the search for resources to develop the local economy and improve people’s living conditions. In particular, from the beginning of next year, restrictions on the so-called horizontal budget loans, that is, when one region issues a loan to another, will be lifted. Now they will be able to borrow funds for up to three years. The restrictions on the issuance of debt securities by regions and municipalities that do not have the necessary credit rating will also be lifted. Many heads of regions asked the Government to do this.
The next step will be the development and adoption of measures for individual sectors of the economy. The President has already instructed us to allocate funds to support aviation. I would also ask the relevant ministries to work out proposals for the construction sector, civil aviation and light industry.
The Government will continue developing additional support measures.
Today we will also discuss the allocation to the regions of over 45 billion roubles as subsidies for incentive payments to doctors and other workers who are involved in treating patients with the coronavirus, as the President said. We will also consider the issue of allocating more than 3 billion roubles for additional payments to doctors who provide ambulance services, and to those who work in hospitals subordinated to law enforcement agencies and medical organisations in closed administrative-territorial entities.
We will allocate almost 640 million roubles to equip the redesigned facilities to provide care for patients with the coronavirus infection. The Federal Medical-Biological Agency should promptly send subsidies to medical organisations in single-industry towns and closed administrative-territorial entities, where departments treating infectious diseases for patients with the coronavirus will be created. In total, 630 hospital beds will be created.
