PRESS: Govt rules against some fincl aid to connection operators

MOSCOW, Jul 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian government has decided not to introduce additional measures of support of connection operators because the industry was not hurt by the sanctions as much as the others, business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday.

Sources at three large operators told the daily that such measures as a beneficial rate of the corporate income tax of 3% till December 31, 2024, a moratorium on contributions by the connection operators to the universal services reserve, cheap loans at the rate of no more than 3% on acquisition of telecom equipment, working capital financing, and support of connection infrastructure were not agreed at the government.

The Digital Development Ministry decided to reject these measures after it had assessed the operators’ financial indicators for the recent several months and concluded that “they were not impacted heavily by the current economic situation.”

Among the adopted steps were the suggestions prepared by the ministry in March – a one-year moratorium on expansion of capacities of data storage systems by 15%, a one-year pause in requirements to the operators on coverage of federal highways and small towns with LTE networks as well as a permit to jointly use connection networks in remote areas.

The support package also contains “a fair indexation of tariffs” within inflation.

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