Rosalkogolregulirovanie reported on its website that it is giving three more months to prepare for a new procedure for retailers to declare alcohol sales.

According to amendments to the law regulating the alcohol industry adopted in July 2011, from January 1, 2012, retailers must report on alcohol sales (what and how much they sold) not only to local authorities that issue them a license, but also to Rosalkogolregulirovanie. Manufacturers and wholesalers have been submitting such reports for a long time, but for retailers this is the first experience. Retailers were supposed to submit declarations for the first quarter of 2012 by April 10.

But Rosalkogolregulirovanie has not yet provided information on the form of these declarations. In addition, Rosalkogolregulirovanie itself does not have the ability to collect declarations from retailers across the country - the agency is represented only at the level of federal districts. Therefore, regional authorities must accept declarations. And out of 83 regions, 76 are currently ready for this, a representative of Rosalkogolregulirovanie told Vedomosti.

As a result, based on “numerous requests to Rosalkogolregulirovanie from representatives of organizations participating in the alcohol market, as well as executive authorities,” the acceptance of declarations for the first quarter of 2012 has been postponed until June 2012, the agency reported on its website on Monday.

"We were very worried that we would not be able to submit the declarations on time. Fortunately, this time it did not work out as usual: the law came into force, but it is not known how to comply with it," says Mikhail Susov, Director of Corporate Communications at X5 Retail Group (Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel chains). As Ilya Belonovsky, Executive Director of the industry association AKORT, explained, even if the declaration form had been determined, retailers still might not have had time to report by April 10. And in this case, the retailer faces a fine of up to 80,000 rubles and, most importantly, suspension of the license to sell alcohol.

A reprieve from the crisis