Vedomosti: "Putin's list"
Fight against the crisis
Targeted support
Government devises ways to funnel state funds into industries
The government has made quite a few decisions to support the banking sector, but it takes time for funds to reach industries, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lamented yesterday. To accelerate this process, it was decided to compile a list of major companies (accounting for 85% of the country's GDP) that are to be given "prime attention."
To be put on the list, the companies must meet the following criteria: they must have a turnover of 15 to 16 billion roubles and a workforce of over 4000 people, and they must be big taxpayers and major employers in a city or town. Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin explained that the candidates do not have to comply with all four criteria.
The requirements will be milder for agricultural companies: their turnover may be less than 15 billion roubles.
Vladimir Putin instructed the government to approve the lists within two days.
When asked by the Vedomosti business daily to specify the companies to be put on the list, Kudrin said, "all the companies you will be able to remember."
A source at the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) said that the portion of agribusinesses on the list would be between 10% and 15%. There are 544 such companies in Russia with revenues exceeding 15 billion roubles (according to the data of SPARK.Interfax for 2007).
At present, a bank may refuse to issue a loan to any applicant without explanation or reason. The list approved by the working group will guarantee the return of the loan funds to the creditor, the government official said when commenting on the Prime Minister's initiative.
The list will include the companies of the federal and regional levels. A working group (to be set up within the anti-crisis commission chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and made up of officials from the Finance Ministry, the Economic Development Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Energy Ministry, and also the heads of Sberbank, Vneshtorgbank (VTB), Rosselkhozbank, and Gazprombank) will select 300 companies of federal importance. Regional groups, to be made up of representatives of the local governments and the same banks, will select another 1200 companies.
The regions will be given the right to provide surety for loans.
The listed companies will receive loans (including government-guaranteed ones) and subsidies to pay interest on loans; they will have state orders and an opportunity to get a tax deferment. The government is ready to contribute to their [authorised] capitals where necessary, Putin said.
There are funds and a legislative framework for nearly all these measures, Alexei Kudrin said. The government has earmarked 300 billion roubles for state guarantees and 9.5 billion roubles to subsidise interest payments. The Tax and Budget Codes will have to be amended: the former, to accelerate the companies' restructuring, and the latter, to allow the regions to provide state guarantees. A possibility for tax debt restructuring, not only a tax deferment or tax installment payment, may also be written into the Tax Code. A part of [tax] debts may be written off," the government official said.
"If our company is put on the list, we must first look into the terms and conditions of the offered form of support and then decide," said Mukhamed Tsikanov of Mechel, a leading mining and metals group.
A spokesman of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) thinks that the drafted criteria are fair and the list compilation is a timely measure. Anatoly Chumakov, director general of the Ramenskoye instrument-making plant, regrets that his company does not meet the above-mentioned criteria. However, he hopes that the plant will get the money through its customers.
Vladimir Tikhomirov of the Uralsib Financial Corporation thinks that by compiling the list, the government has admitted that there will not be enough money for everyone.
The Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG has already received the first portion of government assistance, a manager in the aircraft-building sector told the Vedomosti business daily. On December 12, the corporation received capital investment worth 15 billion roubles. MiG complies with all the criteria: its turnover exceeds 15 billion roubles and the workforce numbers over 4,000, the manager said.
Nadezhda Ivanitskaya, Alexei Nikolsky, Yevgenia Pismennaya
