Small businesses will reduce the reporting burden of collecting statistical data
The Government of the Russian Federation has approved the draft law of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation on reducing the reporting burden on small and microbusiness by changing the approach to collecting statistical data. The time for filling out reports will be reduced to several hours per year. It is planned that this procedure will come into force on January 1, 2025.
The relevant draft federal law "On Amendments to Article 5 of the Federal Law "On the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Russian Federation" and the Federal Law "On Official Statistical Accounting and the System of State Statistics in the Russian Federation" has been prepared as part of the implementation of the instructions of the President of Russia on optimizing the forms of reporting submitted by SMEs, as well as "the roadmap", approved by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov.
The amendments proposed by the bill are aimed at defining a new approach to conducting statistical observations. In particular, it is proposed to empower the Government of the Russian Federation to approve an exhaustive list of primary statistical indicators, the frequency of their collection and the procedure for conducting selective federal statistical observations of SMEs. This will avoid duplication and inconsistency of the collected data, and exclude the collection of information already contained in state information systems.
"Now not only Rosstat collects information from businesses, but also industry and regional departments. Small companies have more than a thousand reporting forms, and the indicators themselves are often duplicated. On average, businesses spend more than a month a year filling out data," said Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development.
The information will be collected immediately, taking into account the interests of all industry departments and can be used repeatedly, including with the consent of the respondent. Rosstat will become the coordinator for working with the list. It is planned to implement the solution on Rosstat's "Digital Analytical platform for providing statistical Data", where businesses will transfer information using personal accounts on the SME.RF digital platform and the portal of Public Services.
"The key advantages of the innovation are that the basic information about the company in the reports will be filled in automatically, taking into account the data in the profile. In addition, only data on the respondent's profile will be requested. Finally, there will be fewer indicators due to combining identical ones into unique ones, and the time for filling out reports will be reduced to several hours per year," Maxim Reshetnikov stressed.
It is planned that this reporting procedure will come into force on January 1, 2025. Before that, the relevant regulatory framework will be prepared, and the Rosstat system will be finalized.
Support for small and medium-sized businesses is being implemented in accordance with the national project "Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship", which was initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.