New supporting measures for business

At the end of this February, the Government of the Russian Federation adopted a new program to support entrepreneurs within the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus. Funds for this purpose are allocated from the reserve fund.

The introduced easy-term loan program applies to both small businesses and large enterprises among the least recovered after the pandemic industries, such as culture, tourism, sports, entertainment, hotel and catering business.

Loans are issued for 12 months at a rate of 3%. At the same time, it is not required to pay the loan principal and interests in the first half of the year; in the second half of the year, the payments are divided into monthly equal shares.

The loan amount is up to 500 million RUB, it depends on the number of employees employed and the condition that at least 90% of the workplaces are retained during the validity of the loan agreement.

Loans are issued from March 9 to July 1, 2021. The guarantor is the State represented by the State Development Corporation VEB.RF

The funds allocated by the Government of the Russian Federation will be used to pay the banks the difference between the market and preferential interest rates, as well as for the borrowers' debt repayment in the first half of the loan agreements.

According to the Government estimates, around 75 thousand companies can potentially use such assistance, with about 1.5 million people employed.