The state will support Russian IT companies, but it will increase their insurance premiums

Today, instead of the basic rate of insurance premiums of 30%, an IT company with at least seven employees can claim a preferential interest rate of 14%. To do this, 90% of their revenue must be provided by the sale of IT products or IT services, and they must be accredited by the Ministry of Communications. This benefit is granted until 2017.



On November 19, Nikolai Nikiforov, Minister of Communications and Mass Media, spoke at a meeting of the Federation Council with a proposal to support a domestic software manufacturer and other IT companies. The senators prepared a draft resolution, which provided for the extension of the lower premium rates until 2025.



Unfortunately, after agreeing with the Ministry of Finance, the item on the extension of preferences is deleted from the final version of the document. At the same time, the Federation Council has provided several other measures to support the domestic manufacturer (see under the cut).

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Of course, until 2017, a lot will change, so there is an opportunity to somehow fix the situation.



The final version of the Resolution of the Council of Federations “On the development of information technologies in the Russian Federation and measures to support domestic production of communications equipment” is cited below (selectively):

The telecommunications industry in the Russian Federation today is the most dependent on the use of imported software - up to 90% in terms of operating system software and database management systems. The share of telecommunications equipment from American and European suppliers of our telecom operators currently ranges from 95% to 99%. The criticality of this circumstance is that the entire volume of voice information, SMS messages, Internet traffic and financial transactions pass through this equipment.



In the current geopolitical situation, with the introduction of sanctions aimed at weakening the Russian economy, there is a risk of losing control not only for information inside the country, but also for the functions of government through the usual electronic means of communication. At the same time, the main risk may lie in external destructive effects (stopping the provision of support services for software already in use, disabling huge communication networks in Russia due to undeclared capabilities of foreign equipment, etc.). In these conditions, it will be necessary to revise the previous approaches to the development of the information technology industry.



In view of the foregoing, the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation decides:



* develop measures aimed at improving information security in connection with the changed geopolitical situation and the introduction of sanctions aimed at weakening the Russian economy;



* prepare proposals aimed at import substitution in the segments of the production of communications, system and application software, taking into account the comprehensive reform of the public procurement system;



* prepare proposals for improving the system of training highly qualified specialists for enterprises of the information technology industry;



* consider the feasibility of creating a universal software fund, sources and methods of its formation in order to support Russian companies and domestic developments in the system software segment;



* consider the possibility of creating registries of domestic software and communication tools that have an advantage over foreign products;



* step up efforts to provide credit organizations with the right of access to information on borrowers available in state information resources, including information on borrowers' income available in the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation;



* to take the necessary measures to restore public broadcasting in the Russian Federation.

Obviously, the proposed measures are more of a political nature. For example, the import substitution program is introduced to ensure the interests of national security, and not at all to stimulate the industry economically. It seems that the economy does not occupy the minds of legislators as much as foreign policy. This is such a slightly schizophrenic logic, because it is obvious that without a strong economy there can be no effective foreign policy.



Vedomosti writes that the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, without comment, has agreed on the items of the draft resolution of the Council of the Federation regarding lower insurance premium rates. That is, they concluded that this is indeed an effective and necessary measure. But the Ministry of Finance spoke against the benefits, citing a decrease in revenues of extrabudgetary funds, as well as the fact that it "puts companies in unequal conditions."