PRESS: Firms with foreign owners may join Russian soft register

MOSCOW, Sep 8 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Digital Development Ministry has suggested revising the criteria of adding software to a special register, used for state purchases, which may facilitate access for foreign products sold via local firms, business daily Kommersant reported on Tuesday.

The amendments say the register can comprise software of local firms whose beneficiaries are foreign individuals and companies, while earlier they must be only Russians.

They will keep the requirement of possible full technical support of such software on the territory of the whole country, including Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

Deputy Minister Maxim Parshin told the daily the changes will facilitate adding of software to the register, and the period of consideration of applications would shrink to 25 days from three months earlier.

Those on the register will enjoy zero value-added tax on software sales, which is a part of the tax maneuver for the IT industry in 2021.

Local developers are concerned about such competition, but hope foreigners would be stopped by the requirement to provide software in Crimea.

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