NORILSK, June 1. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company (Nornickel) suggests introducing 5-year tax holidays for sports facilities, built in the Arctic in the form of a public-private partnership (PPP), the company’s Vice President on federal and regional programs Andrei Grachev told a meeting on development of sports and tourism in Russia’s Arctic regions.
Construction of big facilities in the Arctic is very expensive, thus using the PPP mechanism is important there, he added.
"The construction and maintenance of sports infrastructures north of the Arctic Circle is much more expensive than in central Russia," he said. "Thus, state incentives are necessary for such projects."
"One of the measures could be tax holidays, for example, for property taxes, for a facility’s first five years," the vice president said.
Having stressed that sports services in the Arctic must be in the amounts and of the quality and price comparable with those in other territories, Nornickel’s representative said the socially responsible businesses will support the idea of a working group on sports and tourism in the Arctic Council.
Over recent years, Nornickel has invested more than 8 billion rubles ($109 million) in sports infrastructures. Every year, the company organizes more than 500 sports events, involving more than 70,000 participants.