This was announced by the Business Ombudsman of the Moscow Region Vladimir Golovnev, summing up the results of the work for 9 months of this year.  According to Golovnev, the situation that has developed in 2020, associated with restrictive measures due to the Coronavirus pandemic, affected both the number and the issues of incoming requests.

    “More than 7.1 thousand business application were received by Commissioner's Office during last 9 months of this year, including about 2.3 thousand official written and 4.8 thousand the verbal ones. It should be noted, that in 2020, 2/3 of requests are somehow related to the "coronavirus" topic.  In addition, it can be noted that the number of consultations provided to entrepreneurs both verbal and written - by phone, e-mail, in instant messengers and social networks - has increased in 20 times. The number of applications received in 2020 significantly exceeds the figures for the same period in 2019”, said Vladimir Golovnev, the Commissioner for the Protection of the Entrepreneur's Rights in the Moscow Region.

    According to the Regional Business Ombudsman, most of complaints in the period from March to July 2020, were related to compliance (interpretation) of restrictions (55.4%), 33.9% contained requests for easing the restrictions imposed and 10.7 % of those who applied sent their proposals on legislative changing.    

Basically, the proposals concerned the addition of the list of industries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

    Questions that have been most frequently asked were also discussed: receiving state support (subsidies, soft loans for paying salaries to employees, keeping jobs), deferring tax and insurance payments, and questions about the possibility of transferring businesses online on self-isolation.

    “At present, the Russian Government is analyzing anti-crisis measures, identifying shortcomings.  Based on the analysis, additional proposals will be prepared, for example, the improvement of the mechanism of the all-Russian classifiers of types of economic activity (OKVED).  Since it was this business identification system that was used to identify the most affected industries during the pandemic, it is necessary, in my opinion, to work out this system most carefully.  This will speed up targeted support for business and expand the list of those who will be able to count on benefits in the event of a “second wave”, said the Moscow Region Business Ombudsman Vladimir Golovnev.

    1/3 of the requests received by the Commissioner this year, without taking into account the requests related to the coronavirus pandemic, were distributed as follows:

21.2% - complaints about the action or inaction of law enforcement authorities. 17.1% - issues related to land and property relations, 14% - violations in public procurement, 13.4% - administrative barriers, 11.2% - taxes  , 8.4% - non-stationary trade, 4% - control and supervision activities, 3.7% - housing and communal services, 2.2% - transport, 0.9% - construction, 0.8% - advertising, 3.1% private requests.