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"Opora Rossii: more than 10% of SME revenues are spent on inspections

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"Opora Rossii: more than 10% of SME revenues are spent on inspections

In Russia, representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) spend more than 10% of their revenues on inspections. This was stated by Sergey Borisov, chairman of the board of trustees of the All-Russian Public Organization of Small and Medium Entrepreneurship "Opora Russia", reports the correspondent of "Made in Russia".

"According to our feelings, small businesses are now paying more than 10% of their revenue for inspections. This strongly pushes us - the country, the state - away from the zone of profitability, efficiency and competitiveness," he said.

According to Borisov, this situation is reminiscent of a period 13 years ago. "In 2008-2009, we made an assessment, asked a huge number of entrepreneurs how much they spend on inspections. At that time, the figure was also about 10%. Then the Ministry of Economic Development program began, the figure dropped to 6%. This was the biggest progress: 6% of revenues a small entrepreneur spent on bureaucracy, including meetings with controllers. This even included commercial bribery - bribes. It is a sin, the entrepreneur sometimes had to pay for his mistakes," said the expert.

He noted that a special federal law was created and developed in 2008, which helped ease administrative pressure on SMEs for a while, but soon the situation began to deteriorate again. "In 2008, it was decided to give all coordination of control and supervision to the Prosecutor General's Office. It was a good time, when the prosecutor's office took a very responsible and rigorous approach to investigating the nature of all inspections. But after that, step by step, 68 types of control came out from under the influence of this law - supervisory bodies learned how to conduct inspections without coordination. I am convinced that this was a mistake, but not everything depends on the prosecutor's office..." - believes the expert.

According to him, the fact that now 75% of the total mass of inspections are unplanned adds to the negativity. "These are the most dangerous inspections, which can stop a company, its financial activities, freeze accounts. They are not preventive, educational in nature. In developed countries, the controller comes and helps, in our country they look for fleas very often. The number of fines is 3-4 times more than the number of warnings. Today the prosecutor's office approves only 4% of unscheduled inspections," stated the expert.

STAGNATION

According to Borisov, Russia has not yet managed to create a model that would be convenient for entrepreneurs, would not create so many barriers and would not lead to great losses for business. The representative of the association believes that since 2012 SME development has stood still. "Since 2012, the growth and development of small business has stopped. We had a good surge from 2005 to 2008 when we made a 38% jump in the number of SMEs. After that we stopped and, in spite of the development of the ecosystem and big investments, we're still standing," the expert said.

At the same time, Borisov expressed hope that the situation will change. "Now the government has taken up work to cut off unnecessary inspections and reduce the impact of control and supervision," he reminded.

Small businesses are businesses that have an income of no more than 800 million a year and fewer than 100 employees, medium businesses are businesses of no more than 2 billion and have 250 employees.

SMEs account for about 20% of the gross domestic product of the Russian economy, whereas in developed countries they account for 50-60%.

Made / Made in Russia

Author: Maria Buzanakova

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