On May 22, the State Duma adopted a government law in the third reading, which, in particular, will provide small and medium-sized businesses affected by the coronavirus with the opportunity to early terminate real estate lease agreements without penalties. TASS reports.
However, it is clarified that such a right will be received by SMEs only if the lessor refuses to reduce the fee. The security deposit will not be returned to the tenant.
"In case of failure to reach an agreement between the lessee and the lessor to reduce the rent or otherwise change the terms of the agreement within 14 working days from the date of the lessee's appeal to the lessor, the lessee has the right to cancel the specified lease no later than October 1, 2020," the document says.
The new law will affect those small and medium-sized businesses that have been most affected by the spread of the virus infection in the country. It is noted that agreements to reduce the amount of rent are limited to a period of one year.
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Russian businesses are provided with all kinds of support measures in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. For example, banks began to provide companies with interest-free loans for salaries of employees, and also provided SMEs with the opportunity to arrange credit holidays. In addition, the country canceled more than 200 thousand scheduled inspections of businesses in 2020, and unscheduled inspections will have to be coordinated with the Prosecutor General's Office.
Support for entrepreneurs is provided for by the Small and Medium Business National Project, which is being implemented in Russia at the initiative of President Vladimir Putin. It assumes an increase in the number of people employed in small and medium-sized businesses, including individual entrepreneurs, to 25 million people by the end of 2024, an increase in the share of SMEs in the country's GDP to 32 percent and the share of exports of SMEs to 10 percent of the total by 2024. More than 481 billion rubles are planned to be allocated for the project.