The Ministry of Economic Development of Russia proposed to postpone the obligations of SME owners until demobilization

The Ministry of Economic Development of Russia has prepared changes to the regulatory framework governing the fulfillment by SMEs of the conditions for providing grants, soft loans and microloans, payments on them for mobilized owners of small and medium-sized businesses are proposed to be stopped until they return to normal life.

Requirements for the fulfillment of obligations under grants can be extended for the period of mobilization or mitigated if they are not fulfilled.

Amendments to the rules for microfinance for SMEs and the self-employed introduce a differentiation in the maximum size of microcredits - up to 5 million rubles. for SMEs and up to 500 thousand rubles. for the self-employed in a microcredit company (it was up to 1 million rubles) and up to 1 million rubles. in the state microfinance organization. At the same time, while the borrower is being mobilized, the federal agency proposes to suspend the fulfillment of obligations under microloans; for this, an additional agreement to the loan agreement will need to be signed until December 2023. Its term can also be extended, but should not exceed five years.

A similar rule is proposed to be applied to recipients of grant support. Recall that within the framework of the national SME project, it is provided to young entrepreneurs under the age of 25 years. It is also planned to sign an additional agreement with them on extending the terms for achieving the results of the grant without changing its size, and in case of impossibility, on reducing the requirements or returning the unused grant “without applying penalties”.

It should be noted that the package of proposals of the federal agency can remove the most common questions about the impact of mobilization on the obligations of the owners of small and medium-sized companies, in which the authorities have so far seen the source of the future development of the investment and business environment in the Russian Federation, and not a mobilization resource. However, the real impact of their participation in a military operation may later require, obviously, much more extensive changes in regulatory acts - so far, clashes of the military and economic interests of the state have simply not occurred on such a scale.