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Crimea and Sevastopol

Special economic zone in Crimea could help fight illegal business — ombudsman

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MOSCOW, April 01. /ITAR-TASS/. Setting up a special economic zone in Crimea could become a major instrument that would help take business in the region from out of the shadows, Russian business ombudsman Boris Titov told a news conference on Tuesday.

He said ideas that had been long discussed in Russia but unfortunately remained unrealized could be applied in that special economic zone (SEZ). For example, it would be easier to fight against illegal business through easing administrative procedures for small businesses and a tax burden on them.

“We can offer a system of self-employed entrepreneurs within the SEZ framework,” Titov said, adding that self-employed entrepreneurs could be able to buy a patent without additional administrative procedures. Besides, he said a tax burden on entrepreneurs should be small. One must realize that small business was not a fiscal source for the budget, but first of all a social function, including in Crimea, he said. “That is why the sum of money paid for a patent should be reasonable,” he added.

Also, tax holidays for the small business could be applied in Crimea, he said, reminding the audience that this had been a failed idea for Russia. “So this could now be put into practice in Crimea. For example, all small enterprises engaged in production, tourism, innovation and social spheres, could go without paying taxes in the first three years,” he said.

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“And we also propose another scheme - not to pay the fist 10 million rubles of taxes. This is better from the point of view of regulation, as in this situation they keep the books in earnest, are doing business in earnest and cannot re-register,” he noted.

Besides, small enterprises could be freed from checks for at least the first three years, with checks allowed in the presence of a business ombudsman only in the case of a danger for the life and health of people, he said.

He said it would be important not to have just a separate industrial park or a zone in Crimea, a separate territory. “We believe the special economic zone should embrace the whole Crimea” and the whole regions should be regulated in accordance with the same rules. “Only then this will work,” Titov said.

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Crimea and Sevastopol

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