PM: Govt prepares roadmap to develop IT with special tax regime

KAZAN/INNOPOLIS, Tatarstan, Jul 9 (PRIME) -- The Russian government has prepared a program to develop the IT industry, comprising a special tax regime and stimulation of demand, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday at a panel discussion with representatives of the IT industry.

“The government has drafted a program to develop the industry that has six main directions of the state policy or state support. The first one is certainly a new tax regime, the one asked for by many of you, the one many wanted to achieve,” Mishustin said.

The other vectors are stimulation of demand, support of innovations, assistance to startups, progress of public and private partnership, and widening of a staff base of the IT industry.

The prime minister also said that companies with state participation will have to develop a program of digital transformation with focus on the use of local software.

“Today there is restriction on purchases of foreign software for state needs. The measure is disliked by many. But this condition will apply to IT purchases of the companies with state participation and to their subsidiaries,” Mishustin said.

“They will have to prepare a program of digital transformation that stipulates the priority exploitation of domestic software solutions, and they will be considered by the state commission on digital development.”  

The move will boost demand for Russian software products, he said.

Mishustin also said that the government and state companies are to agree by January 1, 2021 upon plans on substitution of used foreign software with domestic one by 2024.

End %%ee/jst%%