Preferential leasing financing will be expanded to light industry
As part of the new federal project "Small and medium-sized enterprises and support for individual entrepreneurship initiatives", preferential leasing financing will be extended to light industry. This was told to Izvestia by the SME Corporation (acting as the program operator).
Initially, the mechanism applied only to small manufacturing enterprises, and in 2023, enterprises from new regions were added. At the same time, conditions are also available in these regions for renting equipment for tourism, medicine, sports and creative industries.
"Today, more than 53,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) work in the light industry. The employment rate in this area has already exceeded 300,000 people. And in 2024 alone, about 8 thousand new enterprises were created, in 2023 their income amounted to about 1.2 trillion rubles," explained Alexander Isaevich, CEO of the business association.
According to him, preferential leasing financing for the light industry will contribute to the further development of the segment, provide opportunities for updating or expanding the technological base. This will help preserve and develop domestic brands.
In addition, by the end of 2024, there was a steady increase in the number of small and medium-sized enterprises in new regions of Russia, Alexander Isaevich noted. Their number has grown by almost 20%, which shows that business is still coming to the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. SMEs need to modernize their production facilities, so a preferential equipment leasing tool can help them, he added.
The new federal project will maintain low preferential rates of 6% for Russian equipment and 8% for foreign equipment. And on March 17, applications for new programs for 2025 will be accepted.
Concessional leasing, together with other development tools, will make it possible by 2030 to ensure income growth per employee of an SME 1.2 times higher than GDP growth.
"In conditions of high interest rates on corporate loans, leasing of machinery and equipment will be a more in-demand tool for businesses. It is easier for the government to subsidize such programs, since they are more targeted than classic loans," independent expert Andrei Barkhota is convinced.
However, the authorities are reducing the amount of support for small businesses.
For example, the concessional lending program is being relaunched this year. However, the modified mechanism (the 1764 + PSK program, where the PSK is a credit incentive program) will apply only to a few industries — manufacturing, transportation and storage, tourism, information technology, and the scientific and technical sphere. Companies will be able to get a loan at the Central Bank's rate of minus 3.5% (currently it is 17.5%).
743,000 SMEs are registered in the five listed industries, meaning that the support program will now cover only 11% of the entire sector. At the same time, they employ 4.3 million people.
It will also reduce not only the coverage of SMEs, but also the amount of support itself — up to 100 billion rubles annually.
The spread of preferential leasing to light industry can be called compensation for the cancellation of preferential loans, says Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global.
"The light industry needs government support, as import substitution must be carried out at an accelerated pace in this area. But, on the one hand, for example, the textile industry will be able to save on the purchase of imported equipment through a leasing program, and on the other, there are many other costs — the purchase of raw materials that are supplied from other countries," she added.
Earlier, on February 26, Alexander Isaevich, CEO of SME Corporation, told Izvestia that the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in light industry in 2025 exceeded 53 thousand. This is more than 20% higher than at the beginning of 2022.
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