Discussion of a bill banning the sale of draft beer. The Ministry of Finance has banned the sale of beer to individual entrepreneurs

04.06.2019

The need to pass the bill, as follows from explanatory note to it, caused by the fact that individual entrepreneurs do not fully declare the volumes of retail beer sales. As an illustration, the data is given that some breweries declared for 2015 several times smaller volume of beer than that which was sold in retail. In the Ministry of Finance, this is due to the fact that for individual entrepreneurs a lower penalty for non-submission of declarations is established than for legal entities: 10-15 thousand rubles. against 150-200 thousand rubles. "In this regard, organizations that sell beer and beer drinks, in order to evade responsibility, conclude fictitious lease agreements with individual entrepreneurs for the sale of these products," the explanatory note says.

The rationale presented by the Ministry of Finance for the prohibition of individual entrepreneurs to engage in retail trade in beer is far-fetched, the brewers believe. “Declaration of beer sales in itself is an excessive measure, since since July of this year, all retailers, regardless of their form of ownership, must provide information on its turnover in EGAIS,” says Kirill Bolmatov, director of corporate affairs at Heineken. Another market participant notes that the developer of the draft law did not provide evidence that the difference in declarations on the volumes of produced and sold beer is the sole fault of the individual entrepreneur. “Statistical or other data on the number of identified cases of the conclusion of so-called fictitious contracts of organizations with individual entrepreneurs are also not provided,” added the source of Kommersant.
Oraz Durdyev, Legal Director of SUN Inbev, says that today individual entrepreneurs account for at least 37% of the total volume of outlets selling the company's products. Baltika said that they are working with about 100 thousand individual entrepreneurs in the sphere of beer retail trade. “If we want to make them understand once again that they are in vain hoping for the possibility of small business, then the ban should be introduced as soon as possible,” says Alexei Kedrin, vice president for corporate affairs at Baltika, ironically. Mr. Durdyev notes that in shops owned by individual entrepreneurs, beer is one of the high-margin products in the assortment, which makes it possible to keep prices for socially important goods: "The ban on the sale of beer will seriously hit legal small business."

The greatest damage from the ban of the Ministry of Finance will be incurred by individual entrepreneurs who have only beer in the assortment of their stores. According to one of the market participants, in Russia today there are about 89 thousand stores of so-called live beer, 90% of which are registered with individual entrepreneurs. The owner of the Glavpivmag chain of shops selling craft beer, Evgeny Fedotov, believes that some businessmen will leave the market in the event of a ban on beer sales, some will continue to work in the dark. “Re-registration of property with an individual entrepreneur will take a long time and will require a large number papers, which will contribute to additional expenses, which have already grown after the start of work with EGAIS and the associated need to pay more for the services of accountants, ”he says. Vladlen Maksimov, President of the Coalition of Small Trade Format Owners, believes that the proposal of the Ministry of Finance will have a negative impact not only on small business in the field of trade, but also in the sphere of beer production: “Small breweries cannot pay to enter retail chains, so small shops for them, according to in fact, they are one of the few sales channels "

As the brewers remind, before the ban on the sale of beer in stalls and kiosks came into force on January 1, 2013, 20% of all their products were sold through this channel. As a result, the total number of outlets selling beer has since decreased by 50 thousand.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation proposes to prohibit from July 1, 2017 individual entrepreneurs(IP) to be engaged in retail trade of beer. According to Kommersant, referring to the order of the department, the need for a ban is caused by the fact that individual entrepreneurs often declare much less beer than they sell.

The Ministry of Finance believes that this is due to lower fines for non-submission of declarations for individual entrepreneurs, compared to legal entities: 10-15 thousand rubles versus 150-200 thousand rubles.

"In this regard, organizations that sell beer and beer drinks, in order to evade responsibility, conclude fictitious lease agreements with individual entrepreneurs for the sale of these products," the explanatory note says. Market participants perceive the impending ban as another blow to small businesses, which will affect tens of thousands

Corresponding amendments are proposed to be introduced to 171-FZ on state regulation of production and turnover of alcohol. It is noted that under the ban it is proposed to introduce beer and beer drinks: cider, Poiret and mead.

According to the newspaper, they plan to introduce a new restriction in the summer of 2017 for the entire country. The exception will be Crimea and Sevastopol - these regions will be deferred until January 1, 2018.

We will remind, earlier the Ministry of Finance came up with a proposal for still wines. This is stated in the draft of the main measures of tax policy for the period from 2017 to 2019, which the Ministry of Finance sent to the government.

According to the document, the increase in excise tax will not affect sparkling wines, champagne, fruit wines and wine drinks. It is proposed to increase the excise tax on wine from imported grapes from 9 to 18 rubles per liter.

"The anti-tobacco campaign is in full swing in Russia. The state is acting consistently, and not so much the Ministry of Finance as the Ministry of Health. When the law banning sales in small retail outlets was passed, there was no advertising or open display of goods," the website said. expert on the consumer market, chairman of the board of directors of the Marcon company Sergey Rak.

Raising excise taxes is just a further step: the higher the excise tax, the more often people will abandon it. Prices are rising, the number of smokers is decreasing, and budget revenues are decreasing.

“The excise tax has a rather strong effect on the market. We can see this on the example of the same vodka market. There is a proposal from the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Finance against the reduction of excise taxes. consensus on this issue yet, "- said Sergei Rak.

At the same time, one part of the government comes out with a proposal to significantly reduce the excise tax on vodka due to the fact that the collection of taxes decreases. At the same time, the amount of counterfeit products is growing, and the danger of poisoning with fake vodka increases. However, if prices rise, it is unlikely that alcohol or cigarettes will buy less.

"Society will be divided. Those who have the financial ability will agree to pay more. But the majority, as can be seen from last year, will act in a stereotyped manner: they will determine how much they are able to pay, and will try to keep within this amount, "Sergei Rak told Pravda.Ru.

If the task is not just to collect money, but to push to healthy way life, reducing the consumption of cheap wines, it can turn out the same as with vodka, when people switched to illegal non-certified drinks.

"At the same time, manufacturers and sellers, who are not doing well from an economic point of view, will be limited only by the consumer's wallet. Of course, manufacturers will want to raise prices, but do they still have such an opportunity - this is already big question", - says Sergey Rak.

Are Russians waiting for alcohol on ration cards?

The Ministry of Finance has prepared amendments to the law on state regulation of alcohol turnover, according to which individual entrepreneurs will not be able to sell beer and low alcohol drinks. The ban will hit small business: about one hundred thousand shops owned by individual entrepreneurs will be closed, and small breweries that cannot pay for presence in large retail chains will also be closed. Market participants noticed the far-fetched arguments of the Ministry of Finance and suggested that the innovation was proposed in favor of large retail chains and could partly work in favor of beer corporations, removing small breweries from the market.

The Ministry of Finance has prepared a bill to amend 171-FZ on state regulation of the production and turnover of alcohol. The amendments were developed by Rosalkogolregulirovanie, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Finance. According to the ministry, individual entrepreneurs should be banned from retailing beer and low-alcohol drinks such as cider, mead and Poiret. If this rule is adopted, it will enter into force on July 1, 2017, except for Crimea and Sevastopol, which will be given a one-year delay - until July 2018.

In the explanatory note, the innovation is explained by the fact that individual entrepreneurs do not fully declare the volumes of retail beer sales. According to the Ministry of Finance, this is due to the fact that for individual entrepreneurs there are lower fines for the lack of declarations than for legal entities: 10-15 thousand rubles versus 150-200 thousand. The ministry claims that organizations selling beer conclude fictitious lease agreements with individual entrepreneurs.

In response, the brewers noted that the Ministry of Finance's justification was far-fetched, since since July 2016 all retailers, regardless of their form of ownership, must provide information on alcohol turnover to EGAIS, said Kirill Bolmatov, director of corporate affairs at Heineken. Therefore, declaring beer sales is an outdated and duplicate measure. Also, the Ministry of Finance, claiming systematic violations, did not provide evidence, for example, in the form of statistical data on the number of identified cases of concluding fictitious contracts between organizations and individual entrepreneurs.

The goal of the Ministry of Finance's project is to withdraw small business from the market, leaving the sale of beer the prerogative of only retail chains, follows from the comments of market participants. For example, Baltika works with about 100,000 individual entrepreneurs in the retail beer trade. For SUN Inbev, individual entrepreneurs account for at least 37% of the total volume of outlets selling the company's products.

In addition, the ministerial bill targets small-volume private breweries. "Small breweries cannot pay to enter the network retail, so small shops for them, in fact, are one of the few sales channels" - quotes "Kommersant" the opinion of the president of the coalition of owners of small trade formats Vladlen Maksimov.

Recall that when in the summer of 2017 a ban was introduced on the production and circulation of beer in polyethylene bottles with a volume of more than one and a half liters, producers noticed a slight decrease in demand for beer and an increase in vodka sales, and not an increase in beer consumption in aluminum cans, as the producers hoped for. aluminum. At the same time, initially it was about a complete ban on plastic containers. By the first reading of the bill, it was a question of a ban on PET containers with a volume of more than 0.5 liters or a complete ban on the sale of beer in plastic containers, it would lead to the withdrawal of small producers from the market and the disappearance of draft beer from the sale. To promote the initiative, speeches by political scientists, State Duma deputies, employees of Roszdravnadzor and other departments were used, who declared plastic containers "the secret weapon of the West." By the summer of 2016, when the bill was adopted, it was already about a minimum of one and a half liters.

Moscow, Alexey Usov

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From July 1, 2017, individual entrepreneurs (IE) may be banned from retailing beer. The Ministry of Finance is in favor of this, wishing to suppress the practice of concealing the volume of beer sales. Market participants perceive the impending ban as another blow to small businesses, which will affect tens of thousands of entrepreneurs.

Kommersant has at its disposal a bill prepared by the Ministry of Finance with amendments to 171-FZ on state regulation of the production and circulation of alcohol, according to which retail sale of beer and beer drinks, cider, Poiret and mead can only be carried out by organizations. Individual entrepreneurs will be prohibited from such activities. The Ministry of Finance proposes to introduce a new restriction on July 1, 2017 for the entire country, with the exception of Crimea and Sevastopol - these regions will be deferred until January 1, 2018. Some members of the Union of Russian Brewers also heard that Rosalkogolregulirovanie (RAR, subordinate to the Ministry of Finance) was involved in the development of such a proposal.

The need to adopt the bill, as follows from the explanatory note to it, is due to the fact that individual entrepreneurs do not fully declare the volume of retail beer sales. As an illustration, the data are given that some breweries declared for 2015 several times smaller volume of beer than that which was sold in retail. The Ministry of Finance associates this with the fact that for individual entrepreneurs a lower fine for failure to submit declarations is established than for legal entities: 10-15 thousand rubles. against 150-200 thousand rubles. “In this regard, organizations that sell beer and beer drinks, in order to evade responsibility, conclude fictitious lease agreements with individual entrepreneurs for the sale of these products,” the explanatory note says.

The rationale presented by the Ministry of Finance for prohibiting individual entrepreneurs to engage in retail beer trade is far-fetched, the brewers believe. “Declaration of beer sales in itself is an excessive measure, since since July of this year, all retailers, regardless of their form of ownership, must provide information on its turnover in EGAIS,” says Kirill Bolmatov, director of corporate affairs at Heineken. Another market participant notes that the developer of the draft law did not provide evidence that the difference in declarations on the volumes of produced and sold beer is the sole fault of the individual entrepreneur. “Statistical or other data on the number of identified cases of the conclusion of so-called fictitious contracts of organizations with individual entrepreneurs are also not provided,” the interlocutor added.

Oraz Durdyev, Legal Director of SUN Inbev, says that today individual entrepreneurs account for at least 37% of the total volume of outlets selling the company's products. Baltika said that they are working with about 100 thousand individual entrepreneurs in the sphere of beer retail trade. “If we want to make it clear to them once again that they are in vain hoping for the possibility of small business, then the ban should be introduced as soon as possible,” says Alexei Kedrin, vice president for corporate affairs at Baltika, ironically. Mr. Durdyev notes that in shops owned by individual entrepreneurs, beer is one of the high-margin products in the assortment, which makes it possible to keep the prices of socially important goods down: "The ban on the sale of beer will seriously hit legal small business."

“Re-registration of property with an individual entrepreneur will take a lot of time and will require a large amount of paperwork, which will contribute to additional expenses, which have already grown after the start of work with EGAIS and the associated need to pay more for the services of accountants,” he says. Vladlen Maksimov, President of the Coalition of Small Trade Format Owners, believes that the proposal of the Ministry of Finance will have a negative impact not only on small business in the field of trade, but also in the sphere of beer production: “Small breweries cannot pay to enter retail chains, so small shops for them, according to in fact, they are one of the few sales channels ”.

The Finance Ministry did not respond to Kommersant's request on Tuesday, while the RAR declined to comment.