On the agenda: Implementation of the plan on additional measures to support citizens and the economy during the spread of the coronavirus.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Mikhail Mishustin giving his opening remarks at a Government meeting
We continue to implement the second package of measures that was designed to support citizens and the economy during the spread of the coronavirus infection. The President spoke about this at the meeting with Government members on 15 April.
To allow people and businesses to easily receive information about the state’s support measures they can use, a list of them is published on the websites of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Stopcoronavirus.rf. The list illustrates measures that are being taken by the Government in the economic area. This information will be updated every week and supplemented with the adoption of new measures.
To inform people and businesses in the regions about these measures in full, I would like to ask Mr Chernyshenko to forward this information to the governors of the Russian regions through the coronavirus information centre so that they can distribute it as far as possible and publish it on generally accessible websites.
I would also like to ask Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov and Head of the Federal Tax Service Daniil Yegorov to conduct weekly explanatory briefings at the Russian Government platform. I would also like to draw the attention of all deputy prime ministers and ministers to the importance of explaining the Government’s measures on supporting citizens and the economy on an ongoing basis.
At today’s Government meeting we will consider a draft resolution on approving the rules for granting direct and gratuitous aid to small and medium-sized companies in hard-hit industries based on minimum wage per worker. The companies will be able to spend these grants to maintain salaries and for resolving other urgent tasks.
According to the Finance Ministry, over the course of two months about one million organisations and individual entrepreneurs will be able to use this subsidy and the total costs will exceed 80 billion roubles. This support will be available to those that maintain no less than 90 percent of their staff as compared with March 2020.
We will also expand the programme of interest-free credit to businesses in hard-hit industries. It was supposed to cover just small and micro businesses but now these loans can be granted to bigger companies in the same economic sectors. The rules for granting subsidies to reimburse banks for lost revenue on loans given to small and medium-sized companies to support employment have been adjusted for this purpose. We will allocate additional 3.5 billion roubles for this. As a result, according to the Ministry of Economic Development, the total amount of the loans could reach 305 billion roubles, including 75 percent of them guaranteed by VEB.RF.
We have established a minimum on the share of small and medium-sized companies in the total amount of loan agreements – no less than 40 percent. We have also imposed a ban on any commissions, fees or other payments under such contracts, with the exception of fines in the case of default.
We hope that these and the other measures we are taking will allow people to keep their jobs and let businesses get through this difficult period more easily.
In addition, the President also proposed other support measures for individuals and businesses. Specifically, they concern soft mortgage loans. We will allocate 6 billion roubles from the Government reserve fund for subsidies to lending institutions. These funds will mainly provide for the opportunity to take out a mortgage for the purchase of new housing at a rate not exceeding 6.5 percent. This programme will apply to mortgage loans of up to 8 million roubles in Moscow and St Petersburg, where the housing is more expensive, and up to 3 million roubles in the other regions. This measure will be effective until 1 November, 2020 and will be a great help to those who plan to improve their living conditions. It will also help attract at least 900 billion roubles from the banking system into housing construction.
One more subsidy is to support families where a third or subsequent child was born after 1 January, 2019. The Government will fully or partially repay a mortgage loan for such a family. The repayment amount is up to 450,000 roubles. We will set aside over 9.5 billion roubles to this end. In the Finance Ministry’s estimate, this measure will help no less than 21,000 families. I remind you that, given the increased maternity capital announced by the President in his address to the Federal Assembly this year, the total amount of housing support for large families could exceed one million roubles.
We are also supporting backbone companies pursuant to the President’s instructions. I am talking about providing low-interest loans for working capital. We will give subsidies to lending institutions to the tune of 24 billion roubles for this purpose. The total amount for a one-year loan like this will be up to one billion roubles. And the annual interest rate will not exceed 5 percent. This support is necessary for companies to maintain their employment levels and continuous operations, and to purchase goods and services. And primarily, it will provide them with the opportunity to pay wages to their personnel.
Today’s key objective is to maintain the stable operation of major enterprises that employ millions of people.
We are not only providing financial aid, but are also taking system-wide measures to reduce the regulatory burden.
Today we will consider a draft law that amends the rules on counteracting the legalisation of proceeds from criminal activities, as well as the financing of terrorism.
Currently, banks have the right to refuse to comply with client requests and even block their accounts if the latter lack some documents confirming their good faith. Moreover, banks have the right to do so without explaining the reason. As a result, individuals who lose access to their money and diligent businesses that cannot pay their suppliers or contractors, pay salaries to employees or perform other operations, can be hurt financially.
This draft law improves the decision-making mechanism for refusing clients in such cases. Banks will not be able to terminate a contract or refuse to perform transactions under a client’s request without explaining a reason. This change will apply to both legal entities and individuals. To protect the interests of individuals, a separate rule will be introduced. Now, credit organisations will not have the right to refuse to open a bank account. A bank will only be able to refuse to perform a transaction if, during an audit, there is reasonable evidence of money laundering or the financing of terrorism. We hope this draft law will improve the situation for sincere entrepreneurs.
Despite the difficult situation associated with the spread of the coronavirus, the Government continues to make decisions that are focused on economic development. In particular, this applies to our defence industry. Every year we hold a competition for subsidies to develop a system of advanced training and retraining of defence industry employees. The defence industry has always been one of the most technologically advanced. The requirements for the quality of products and specialist training levels are constantly growing.
From 2017 through 2019, thanks to the competition, seven innovation companies received a total of 150 million roubles. The annual subsidies ranged from 30 million to 63 million roubles. This made it possible to improve the qualifications of 10,500 employees and, at the same time, to develop about 230 programmes for additional professional education. Starting next year, the annual subsidy amount has been increased to 100 million roubles. This means that we can support more projects.
Let’s get down to our agenda.
