Vadim Visloguzov
Businessmen describe anti-crisis package that would suit them
The daily Kommersant has learned that Delovaya Rossiya has asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to support the processing sector. Delovaya Rossiya's requests are clear: a two-year tax credit instalment payment for the value added tax and the income tax, one-year state guarantee for half the credits requested from the banks, and to make the Central Bank begin a staged reduction of the refinancing rate.
In its letter to Prime Minister Putin, obtained by Kommersant, Delovaya Rossiya (DR), speaks of the insufficiency of Government measures to support the national industry "from above" (by injecting money into the banking system) and suggests reducing the liquidity deficit "from below" - by providing funds directly to the enterprises. DR discusses the companies in the processing sector, the base of this business association.
First of all, the proposals include giving businesses a tax credit for the value added tax and the income tax as instalment payment for the taxes due in the second half of 2008. Such a tax credit would be given for two years at the refinancing rate of the Central Bank.
DR says that such a credit may amount to 500 million roubles, "which is much lower than the funds provided to the banking system". The second measure is giving state guarantees to companies that need credits for 50% of the funds they requested from the banks, if the loans are provided at no more than 15% a year. DR believes that this mechanism of providing state guarantees may be arranged through Vnesheconombank and its partner banks.
The third proposal also concerns credit financing. Businessmen have drawn the Prime Minister's attention to the fact that, unlike central banks in other countries fighting the crisis, the Bank of Russia has not rushed to reduce the interest rate that was set at 11% on July 14, 2008. To increase the amount of bank loans, DR suggests cutting the interest rate by 2% a month beginning October 2008. At the end of the letter, DR head Boris Titov asks the Prime Minister to meet with representatives of the organisation "for a more detailed discussion" of the proposals.
The head of the expert council of Delovaya Rossiya and the chairman of the board of directors of the Silan company (a chemical plant in the Lipetsk Region) Anton Danilov-Danilyan told Kommersant that the letter includes the most universal measures that would support the greater part of businesses in the national industry: "We are facing a lack of resources that was filled by credits in the past. In the regions, the banks have already set rates at 25%, instead of the pre-crisis 15-16%." This causes concern among state companies as well; yesterday, the management of Oboronprom suggested that the state cut a stabilisation loan interest rate to the state banks to 10%, saying that, at present, loans were given with a 25% interest rate a year.
According to the head of Kaskad Group (a consumer goods producer), Yuri Nikonov, tax instalment payment is unlikely to be the best solution. "The crisis is expected to develop. This means that in the future, the need will emerge for the ‘pardoning' of the state tax credit, which is not correct from the point of view of normal economics," the businessman told Kommersant.
According to him, the issue of guarantees also causes doubt. "No one will return the money given under the state guarantees. Reducing the VAT would be a real help to the industries," says Mr Nikonov.