MOSCOW, January 3. /TASS/. The law on a 3-year moratorium on inspections of small business has come into force in Russia starting from January 1, 2016. It concerns individual entrepreneurs and legal entities coming within definition of small business.

"The law in itself is a victory for us, a step forward. I think business will feel the results of efforts in this direction," President of Business Russia (Delovaya Rossiya) Alexey Repik told TASS.

The law, which imposes a 3-year moratorium on planned inspections, is aimed at easing operating conditions for small business and partially becoming a supportive measure amid challenging economic environment.

According to Repik, the measures stipulated by the law on moratorium should be of systemic and permanent nature. "Three years will pass while the problem needs to be tackled in general," he said.

The moratorium will not concern small business operating in the fields of medical care, education, social sphere, heat supply, electricity, energy preservation and energy efficiency improvement.

Meanwhile, a number of inspections will be kept, including safety surveillance, fire oversight, environmental surveillance, etc.

The law also defines risk-oriented approach when organizing state supervision over business for reducing expenditures of business and reaching optimal use of supervisory bodies. This risk-oriented approach may be applied starting from January 1, 2018 and may serve as a base for government’s making a decision in certain cases not to make planned and field checks and to reduce or set another date for any inspection.

At the same time the Russian government has the right to outline certain types of state supervision, which may be made using risk-oriented approach before January 1, 2018.