Omsk businessmen may ask for government support due to floods

The government of the country should soon consider proposals from the All-Russian public organization of small and medium-sized businesses “Support of Russia” to provide additional benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the flood in the Orenburg, Kurgan and Tyumen regions. The corresponding letter was sent by the public organization to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. According to the initiative, businesses should be given deferments on taxes and insurance premiums, it is recommended to postpone the deadlines for submitting reports and not charge penalties and fines on late payments, including for utilities. In addition, there is a request to provide new grants to SMEs for business restoration; funds for this are proposed to be allocated from the Cabinet’s reserve fund.

According to experts, in the regions neighboring the Omsk region, the emergency due to the arrival of high water hit businesses hard: in the Orenburg region alone, more than 3 thousand entrepreneurs were previously affected; losses amount to hundreds of millions of rubles. In the Omsk region, the situation is many times better, says Alexander Deryabin, chairman of the regional branch of Support of Russia. According to him, the entrepreneurs did not suffer such serious damage, and, despite the forecast of the regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations about the second and third waves of the flood, there is hope that the current situation in the business sector will continue and they will not suffer large losses. At least there have been no signals yet. However, for the future, Alexander Deryabin considers it appropriate to take into account his colleagues’ proposals.

“I think we certainly also need to be prepared for such a scenario. In the event of even some serious localized flooding, we need to look at how to help businesses recover, continue to operate, support the economy and create jobs. If such a need arises, of course, this experience and the proposals that Opora Russia sent to Mikhail Mishustin will be important to me to also consider in the region,” Alexander Deryabin told the Om1.ru portal.

He added that he is in touch with colleagues from the regions affected by the flood and noted that various measures are already being taken at the state level to support small and medium-sized businesses in connection with the emergency, recalling the effective experience of the authorities and business during the covid pandemic and the so-called lockdown , when various relaxations and grants made it possible to save most of the business in the region and the country as a whole.

Today, in a number of affected regions, some types of support have already been established for companies suffering losses due to the emergency, for example, subsidies have been introduced for the resumption of activities in the amount of up to half a million rubles, microloans for SMEs at minimum rates and credit holidays, as well as exemption from payment of transport, land and property fees until the end of the year, tax rates under the simplified tax system have been reduced.