Agenda: Subsidies for the regions to fund investment deduction compensation; the launch of a businessperson digital profile on the MSP.RF platform; support for the preferential leasing programme for small and medium-sized businesses; and uniform child and pregnancy allowances.
Meeting with deputy prime ministers
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Colleagues, good morning.
The Russian economy continues to adapt to current challenges. Industrial production is being restored, investments in fixed assets are growing. The President elaborated on this at the meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.
In order to support positive processes, we will allocate about three billion roubles to partially compensate for shortfalls in regional budget revenues from the application of the investment tax deduction. Funds will be received by 19 Russian regions, including the Republic of Bashkortostan, Krasnodar and Primorye territories, as well as Vladimir, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Rostov and other regions.
Areas that have successfully implemented a regional investment standard can count on federal assistance. This is a complex of measures to improve the attractiveness of an area for investment.
Thanks to this support, they will be able to work more actively with businesses. And entrepreneurs will be able to reduce income tax payments to the regional budget, thereby cutting the cost of their project, freeing up some of the resources for its further development or launching new promising ideas.
On to the next issue. The President approved the importance of promoting entrepreneurship as a national goal. The Government is paying special attention to this. Based on the current situation, we are taking extra measures to support small- and medium-sized businesses so they can proactively access state assistance and do so simply.
To this end, a digital entrepreneur profile was launched today on МСП.РФ website which will make it possible for legal entities, with their consent, to receive the support measures they need faster. The government agencies will provide information automatically, and businesses will not need to waste time sending in the necessary information.
This new service will proactively offer targeted regional and federal programmes and services that meet the specific needs of business. The time needed for filling in applications will be cut partly because over 50 questions will be removed from the loan application form. The requirement to attach 10 or so documents to the form will be waived. The bank verification procedure will be simplified as well, since the data will come from reliable government sources.
Submitting applications for financial products such as state microloans, grants, and subsidies that call for a large amount of information will be made less complicated as well.
I would like our colleagues who took part in drafting this project to follow the development of it in practice.
There is one more decision designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises.
We will extend the availability of the discounted lease interest rates for these companies. It will be no more than 6 percent APR for Russian-made equipment and no more than 8 percent APR for foreign-made equipment. To this end, we will set aside over 1.1 billion roubles from the budget next year. The funds are allocated under the Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Support for Sole Proprietors national project.
Importantly, these measures should help businesses use the saved expenses to improve production processes and increase output.
Today, we will discuss one more item on our agenda.
On behalf of the President, the Government is building an integrated system for helping low-income families with children of all ages.
As part of this effort, starting 1 January, these families will be receiving a single monthly benefit which will combine several existing social protection measures, including benefits that are provided for a new born or adopted child until the age of 3 and for children aged 3 to 7 and 8 to 17. Pregnant women with low incomes will be receiving this as well. In each case, it will be a targeted and means-tested payment. Thus, families that include about 10 million children will be eligible for support.
The Government approved the eligibility procedure for this monthly payment.
Ms Golikova (addressing Tatyana Golikova), please update us in detail on how this new mechanism will be implemented.
Tatyana Golikova: Mr Mishustin, colleagues.
The key rules for the provision of the single benefit are as follows:
First, uniform rules for providing benefits are being established across the country. This benefit will be provided to families with an average per capita income that is below a regional subsistence minimum based on a comprehensive means testing approach.
Second, the amounts of these child benefits will be differentiated by 50 percent, 75 percent or 100 percent of the child subsistence minimum in a particular region depending on the financial situation of a family. The national average in 2023 is 7,000, 10,500 and 14, 000 roubles.
Third, low-income families will receive a single benefit for each child regardless of birth rank. As of now, not all needy families with young children under 3 have access to state support. Payments for a second child can now come only from maternity capital, and benefits for a third child and subsequent children are not being paid in seven regions. The single benefit will take care of these issues.
Fourth, the amount of the payment to pregnant women is about to increase. Now, it is as low as 50 percent of the regional subsistence minimum for an able-bodied individual, but it will be up to 50 percent, 75 percent or 100 percent of that minimum amount. The maximum amount of this benefit will be about 16,000 roubles nationwide.
Fifth, additionally, families will be eligible for a payment in the amount of one subsistence minimum per child from the maternity capital. This rule will apply to each child, regardless of the child's birth rank, and these payments will be made without a comprehensive means test for families with incomes below two subsistence minimums per person. The amount of the monthly payment in this case will average 28,000 roubles.
Sixth, the benefit will be paid by the Social Fund under the one-stop-shop arrangement. All these families will need to do to receive the single benefit is submit an online application. The Public Services website will start accepting online applications on 28 December and in January the applications will be redirected to the Social Fund. The Social Fund client services and the integrated government services centres will start processing paper-based applications on 9 January 2023. These families with children will start receiving their first payments in the second half of January.
Mr Mishustin, as you mentioned in your opening remarks, this comprehensive, single benefit will be used to support up to 10 million children and pregnant women. State support for these purposes will amount to 1.7 trillion roubles in 2023.
Families with children who were born before 1 January 2023 will have a choice of whether to retain their eligibility to existing support measures or to switch to the single benefit.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Ms Golikova. Please see to it personally, as you always do. You should focus on the proper handling of the paperwork and the actual provision of the single monthly benefit to low-income families. Receiving this benefit should be as trouble-free as possible and, most importantly, the entitled recipients must be clear about the process for getting it. You are well aware of this, and I am sure you will be up to these challenges.
