Industry insider: Half of Moscow’s cafes may close without aid

MOSCOW, Mar 30 (PRIME) -- Half of Moscow’s cafes and restaurants may close without comprehensive state support of the industry in light of the coronavirus pandemic, founder of family cafe and confectionery shop chain Anderson Anastasia Tatulova said in an interview with PRIME released on Monday.

“The situation is critical, the industry will lose 50% or even more participants without support … Support of small businesses and a lack of aid to large market players is absurd now. The entire industry requires support, comprehensive support,” she said.

Lease holders also need help, Tatulova said.

“If we get no support, everything will crash here as well. The measures should be elaborated to prevent sequential destruction of one industry after another. The difficulty is that it should be done fast.”

Around 80% of Russians engaged in the restaurant industry may lose their jobs in the crisis, Tatulova also said.

“There are around 125,000 restaurants, excluding the grey area, in the industry, which employ 1.7 million people, and 80% of the people have been dismissed on grounds of redundancy or sent to unpaid vacations… We have discusses with the colleagues that the industry will be able to keep the maximum of 20% (of employees),” she said.

“Nobody of us is ready to take credits for wages to return them in six months. We have no illusions that revenue will return to at least the level of February in six months,” Tatulova also said, adding that such credits are needed for at least three years.

Russian restaurant owners together with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives have prepared a number of proposals how the state could support the industry in light of the coronavirus pandemic including reduction of value-added tax (VAT), and the measures were sent to the government, Tatulova said.

“We need emergency changes to the tax system. This is the main problem, which has been discussed by the ministries for a year, and there is no willingness to meet the industry’s needs. Almost the entire industry is in the grey area because the issue has not been solved.”

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