Reduce pressure: the prosecutor's office reduced the number of business inspections
The Prosecutor's Office has agreed for 2025 more than 36 thousand inspections of enterprises, more than 101 thousand control measures have been refused. This was reported by the Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov at a meeting of the Federation Council committees. According to him, this creates favorable conditions for doing business in the country. How effective this measure is and how else the authorities can improve the business climate in the Russian Federation, "Izvestia" analyzed.
Permit activity
To reduce administrative barriers for business, the government is implementing a project to optimize the procedure for issuing licenses and permits for various types of activities, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development told Izvestia. As Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko reported to the president at a recent meeting, the timeframe for obtaining permits and the number of documents requested have been halved.
"413 permits can now be obtained on the portal of state services and there to appeal against the refusal to obtain them. In 2025, the government will work on the implementation of a proactive regime for the extension of permits provided that the entrepreneur complies with mandatory requirements in good faith," the ministry specified.
The possibility of submitting a complex application will also be worked out. This is relevant for those types of activities that require a group of permits (both within one department and several). They plan to start with entrepreneurs who decided to open a pharmacy. They will be able to send a complex application to obtain a license Roszdravnadzor (for pharmaceutical activities) and permits Rospotrebnadzor (sanitary-epidemiological conclusion and sanitary-epidemiological expertise), noted in the Ministry of Economic Development.
The amendments to the law "On State Control" approved by the Federation Council correspond to the current mechanism of assigning inspections, when they are agreed on the basis of the triggering of risk indicators.
Risk indicators are understood as a set of signs that, in case of deviation from the established norm, "signal" to the control authorities the need to appoint an inspection. Today, inspections based on risk indicators show an efficiency of 87%. According to Dmitry Grigorenko, the adoption of the law will help to further improve the efficiency of control.
- We have built such a supervisory system, in which control bodies apply a risk-oriented approach to inspections. An inspector only goes with an inspection where there is a risk of violating the law. All these risks are described and publicized. The entrepreneur understands why they came to him and can manage their risks," Dmitry Grigorenko told Izvestia.
Expansion of support measures
The reduction in the number of inspections has indeed effectively supported business, Maxim Lazovsky, founder of the Lazovsky Investments project, confirmed to Izvestia. The margins of companies are already at a minimum level due to the low purchasing power of customers.
- Support for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) is essential. It exists, but it needs to be finalized. Targeted subsidies for marketing, purchase of fixed assets, preferential rent from the city are possible," says the expert. - In addition, it is necessary to finalize tax regimes. In different subjects there are different tax rates for SMEs, including heavily reduced ones. However, these are not Moscow, St. Petersburg and related regions. Improvement of the tax microclimate would necessarily lead to improvement of the overall business climate.
A smaller number of inspections of businesses by control authorities is effective in terms of reducing the administrative burden on enterprises, since inspections lead to financial costs, especially for small businesses, Ivan Yermokhin, an expert at the Russia-OECD Center of the IPEI of the Presidential Academy, told Izvestia.
- At the moment, Russia is rethinking this mechanism. For example, the State Duma passed a law in 2024 that will allow creating public ratings for companies' compliance with mandatory requirements in the framework of inspections," he recalled.
According to the expert, it is necessary to continue to improve the mechanism of inspections and inspection commissions, to develop a system of risk assessment at all stages of control, for example, on the collection of data and reporting by the inspection commission, so that the company could calculate its possible costs in advance.
Unspoken rules
The refusal to conduct more than 101,000 business inspections in 2025 is an important step that demonstrates the government's trust in the business community, Valery Tumin, a member of the Expert Council on the Development of the Digital Economy at the State Duma's Committee on Economic Policy, told Izvestia.
- Reducing the number of inspections allows entrepreneurs to focus on developing their business rather than on preparing for numerous control measures. This is especially important for small and medium-sized businesses, which is the driver of economic growth, - said the politician.
The business community, he said, perceives this as a signal of confidence on the part of the state. Most entrepreneurs are already well aware of the legal requirements and know how to comply with the norms.
The state of business
The day before, the Central Bank's business climate index fell to its lowest values for the year, reflecting the deterioration of current assessments of demand and production. At the same time, inflation expectations of business and households are increasing, creating prerequisites for the continuation of tight monetary policy.
The RSPP Business Environment Index also fell to its lowest level in a year in November. Every fourth company states that its financial situation is deteriorating, and every third company gives a negative assessment of the business climate. Price growth is noted by 69%.
According to experts, such results indicate the risks of stagflation, i.e. economic stagnation with rising inflation. This happens when the economy reaches the limit of its capabilities (they may decrease due to sanctions), and demand is supported, for example, by budget expenditures or preferential credit.
Strict monetary policy will help to avoid stagflation, experts noted. It brings demand in line with the output capacity.
In January-October, the Russian economy grew by 4.1% in annual terms, the Ministry of Economic Development reported in late November. Industrial production growth accelerated to 4.8% year-on-year from 3.2% in September.
The Central Bank noted the continued high optimism of companies regarding the dynamics of demand in the coming months. At the same time, companies point to a noticeable increase in costs and shortage of raw materials in a number of industries, problems with payments and the need to settle accounts with counterparties on partial or full prepayment terms.
High risks
This week, the State Duma passed in the third reading a bill stipulating that scheduled inspections of businesses will be mandatory only for high-risk and extremely high-risk facilities. The document was introduced by a group of senators and deputies in May; the amendments supplement the law "On State Control (Supervision) and Municipal Control in the Russian Federation."
According to the document, scheduled inspections will be retained only for facilities categorized as high risk (one inspection per two years or one mandatory preventive visit per year) and extremely high risk (at least one but no more than two inspections per year). For facilities in other risk categories (significant, medium or moderate), only mandatory preventive visits by controllers are envisaged, the frequency of which, including for certain types of control, is determined by the Russian government.
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance has prepared amendments to the draft law on tax authorities, which expands the powers of the Federal Tax Service. The service will assess the state of Russian companies based on data from the "Legal Entities Assessment Service". It allows a company to request a statement on its financial stability to confirm its reliability to customers.
It will be possible to transfer information to third parties only if this is enshrined in the relevant regulatory legal acts. All data is stored in the Federal Tax Service's systems, which ensure its reliable protection, the Ministry of Finance concluded.
According to experts, if the amendments are adopted, the Federal Tax Service will more actively insist that businesses use the service and use the results of assessments to substantiate claims to taxpayers. For example, the service may consider the failure to use the service when concluding a contract as a lack of "commercial prudence", which may entail serious tax risks for the company, he said.
"Izvestia sent inquiries to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, but at the time of publication no responses had been received.
