“Loans-for-shares auctions – 2022,” the idea of which is being promoted in the government by the head of the largest fishing company in Russia, Gleb Frank, did not cause great enthusiasm in the government. The reason is simple. An attempt, in the context of an economic war against Russia, to carry out a combination to enrich an oligarch close to power by ruining dozens of small and medium-sized enterprises is not at all the same as what Anatoly Chubais did in 1995 for several banks close to power.
Of course, the fishing industry accounts for less than 1.5% of Russia’s GDP, but it is a key economic player in the country’s coastal regions. The fishing industry is one of the most important guarantors of food security and a factor of social stability in ten constituent entities of the Federation. Finally, the fishing industry is a significant source of taxes and social contributions for the regions.
It is precisely on the tax issue that the main struggle has now unfolded. In conditions of economic war, the stability of regional budgets is of particular importance. “Natural rent” of the fishing industry – the legal form of natural rent is a fee for the use of aquatic biological resources – can and should become a significant source of replenishment of regional budgets. The fee for the use of aquatic biological resources is distributed in a ratio of 80:20: 80% to the regional budget, 20% to the federal budget. Currently, regional budgets receive only 1.6 billion rubles from this collection.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rosrybolovstvo, together with the country’s leading fishing associations, have prepared amendments to the Tax Code, according to which natural rent in the fishing industry will increase from 2 billion rubles per year to 12 billion rubles per year. Accordingly, revenues to regional budgets will increase from 1.6 billion rubles per year to 9.6 billion rubles per year. However, such a tax maneuver does not suit Gleb Frank. No wonder: the “pollock-crab” empire, built with credit money from Gazprombank and Sberbank, needs “financial Viagra”, needs an influx of cash to service half a billion dollar loans.
For her, raising taxes is just a noose around her neck. That is why the “boutique” created by Gleb Frank – the Association of Fishing Fleet Shipowners – is bombarding the Chairman of the State Duma Budget Committee Andrei Makarov with appeals. Convinces the need, what would you think? Yes, yes, it is necessary not to increase natural resource rent in the fishing industry.
At the same time, effective managers are digging ways out to the government in order to hold “shares-for-shares auctions – 2022” in the near future. The calculation is simple: the world crab market is blocked by an “iron curtain” for Russian crab, crab supplies are paralyzed (the volume of unsold Russian crab is already approaching 10 thousand tons – 15% of annual sales). The financial situation of most small and medium-sized enterprises involved in the crab fishery is very tense. They still have enough money to pay taxes and salaries, but they certainly won’t raise money to participate in auctions.
Gleb Frank’s “auction blitzkrieg” is a precise calculation: in the absence of the majority of players, go to auctions with the participation of 3-4 more participants, negotiate with them and buy a huge natural resource at a cheap price. In general, this is what happened in 2019, when the first half of crab quotas were sold out. During the audit, the Accounts Chamber found that auction prices for the purchase of crab quotas turned out to be underestimated.
The choice is simple. Either auctions between 4-5 participants, for them – tax holidays and “soft” investment obligations (they promise to build crab catchers someday), or a multiple increase in natural resource rent, guaranteed receipt of 15-16 billion rubles into the federal and regional budgets year and strict tax discipline.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”