The Russian Ministry of Finance has developed a draft resolution that significantly tightens the basic requirements for recipients of federal budget subsidies.
The document has now been published on the regulatory legal acts portal, where it is available to anyone. If adopted, the new rules will come into force on January 1, 2027.
Therefore, there is a high probability that the rules for receiving state support may change in the foreseeable future.
In particular, the draft introduces a number of restrictions for applicants for state support. Companies wishing to receive it must first meet a number of rather complex conditions.
For example, the draft prohibits joint-stock companies from paying dividends, and limited liability companies from distributing net profits.
Moreover, this prohibition applies not just for one year, but for two of the last three reporting years.
Furthermore, the agency proposes limiting access to subsidies for organizations with active bank deposits for a period of one year or more, if their volume is comparable to the amount of government support requested.
Thus, we see that, if the new rules come into force, preferential support will be provided only to «low-income» companies that have virtually no funds in their bank accounts or profits that can be distributed as dividends.
As for public companies, the bill effectively encourages them to forego shareholder payments and instead use their funds to address existing problems or invest in development.
However, the authors of the document also provide a mitigating mechanism: the government will be able to establish exceptions under which these requirements will not apply.
Experts believe this provision could become a lifeline for the agricultural sector.
However, independent agricultural market analysts believe the likelihood of exceptions for the agro-industrial complex is quite high.
As experts explain, the use of alternative methods for investing available funds (besides bank deposits) in agriculture is limited, with the exception of a few large companies.
At the same time, many experts understand the financial authorities’ motivations.
If a company simultaneously receives government subsidies for investment projects and holds a comparable amount on deposit, this seems illogical, especially given that the other enterprise genuinely needs the funds and has no other options for raising them other than government support.
