New Year's present for small and medium businesses

December 08, 2014 15:20

An unstable political situation in the international arena and sharp fluctuations of exchange rate keep the whole world in suspense, but perhaps representatives of small and medium-sized businesses are concerned about what is happening most of all. They are well aware that any financial crisis affects their segment in the first place, calling into question not only profitability, but also the existence of small businesses in general.

Russian President Vladimir Putin managed recently to add confidence to Russian entrepreneurs. As part of the annual meeting in the Federal Assembly, traditionally held on December 4, he told about impending increase of preferences for small and medium businesses. It will be realized through the establishment of mandatory annual volume of purchases that state-owned companies will have to implement in smaller organizations. The corresponding order has already been given to the Government.

At this moment, the quota for purchases from small and medium businesses is only available in the state order. The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation repeatedly initiated introduction of quotas for procurement by state-owned companies according to the Federal law #223-FZ, but the initiative was developed only now. According to authorities, in 2015 the share of small and medium-sized businesses should account for about 18% of the total purchases of state companies, 10% of which will be direct purchases. Today, there is no practice of direct participation of most small companies in the auction: entrepreneurs have reasonable fear of competition. As a result, small and medium businesses still receive orders, but as subcontractors.

Mandatory quotas could cut this chain, but representatives of state-owned companies do not support this idea and look for excuses for its postponement, for example, for 2016. However, according to the protocol of the November meeting with the First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, there will be no schedule shift. On July 1, 2015 they plan to introduce mandatory quota of purchases from small and medium-sized businesses for state-owned companies with revenues of more than 10 billion rubles, and in 2016 — for all the others.

Will the additional quotas strengthen the position of small and medium-sized businesses, or will preferences remain on paper? We will see it soon.