| Rostov authorities decided to subsidize loan rates Starting next year, the administration of the Rostov region intends to abandon lending to local enterprises at the expense of the provincial treasury, as well as any other forms of budgetary support for Don business. The authorities want to spend the freed-up money entirely on subsidizing interest rates on loans. If this plan is implemented, then from next year every loan issued in the region will be preferential.
The head of the Don government, Ivan Stanislavov, believes that those who have been refused a loan by banks usually come to the administration of the Rostov region for budget loans. In other words, we are talking about borrowers whose projects the bankers considered unpromising. When subsidizing the interest rate on a loan, as Mr. Stanislavov says, the bank selects those projects that are truly profitable, effective and that guarantee the repayment of the loan.
“Subsidizing the interest rate allows for every budget ruble to attract about 20 rubles into the economy of the Rostov region. private investment, says regional industry minister Fyodor Shvalev. - Therefore, we need to move away from the practice of direct budget loans, especially free ones. The money spent on subsidizing the interest rate is returned to the treasury, albeit indirectly, due to the growth in production volumes and the tax base of those enterprises that, with the help of the budget, received a loan at a preferential interest rate. By subsidizing the loan rate, we put our enterprises in a privileged position relative to their competitors from other Russian regions, and also help promote Don goods to foreign markets.”
Subsidizing interest rates also has a positive side effect - it additionally stimulates enterprises to comply with tax discipline. After all, only those companies that have no tax debts can count on subsidies. In addition, if the number of recipients of direct budget loans is limited to dozens of enterprises, then hundreds or even thousands of companies fall into the subsidy program, since the budget does not finance the entire amount of the loan, but only the interest on its use, and then only partially.
Every year the Don authorities spend 1-2 billion rubles to support local enterprises. By using the entire amount to subsidize interest rates, the regional administration will be able to reduce the cost of loans to Don enterprises totaling about 20 billion rubles. The total loan portfolio formed by banks in the Rostov region is not much more than this figure (including South-West Sberbank). It turns out that the authorities, in principle, can make the region a territory of totally cheap loans, that is, every loan issued here will be preferential.
According to preliminary estimates, the planned measures will allow Don officials to reduce lending rates in the Rostov region by about a quarter. The local headquarters of the Central Bank will also contribute to the overall reduction in interest rates on bank loans. The fact is that from day to day, regional banks will have the opportunity to take out unprecedentedly cheap loans from the Central Bank under loan agreements with industrial, transport, communications and construction enterprises. It is expected that the Central Bank will experimentally provide the most reliable Don credit institutions with loans for these purposes at 12.5% per annum for up to 180 days. True, this does not mean at all that Don bankers, having received a loan from the Central Bank, will begin to issue loans at the same 12.5% per annum. It is possible that, taking into account costs, the final borrowers, that is, local enterprises, will receive Central Bank money for six months at 16-20% per annum, which, however, is noticeably lower than the current rates in the Don.
Enterprises in St. Petersburg were the first to use Central Bank loans in Russia. The experiment turned out to be successful, and now the Central Bank has decided to include six more regions in it, including the Rostov region. The local main department of the Central Bank has prepared regulations for the provision of this type of loans, which are now being agreed upon in Moscow.
“We can get a response from Moscow any day now,” says the acting director. Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Central Bank for the Rostov Region Irina Valieva. “At least our department expects to provide Rostov banks with the first loans this year for lending to the real sector of the Don economy.” Igor BURAKOV, Rostov-on-Don |
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