Component manufacturers have been acknowledged as enterprises suffering from the Coronavirus
Kommersant.- The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has proposed the inclusion of automotive component production in the list of sectors most affected by the Coronavirus. Unlike car manufacturers, most component manufacturers are not defined as key enterprises, which makes them ineligible for preferential loans. The bureaucratic proposal will give the companies in the sector access to tax deferrals, as well as working capital loans.
As noted by the chairman of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Committee AEB Alexei Belyaev, the manufacturers in the sector were generally faced with the problem of falling turnover at pre-crisis expenses. Despite the relatively short period of lockdown in the industry, as a result of low demand for automobiles, the turnover generated by component producers has fallen and the capacities remained underloaded in comparison with the beginning of the year. Belyaev has underlined the demand from the companies in the sector for preferential loans, emphasising the urgency of the requirements, as well as the need for postponement of rents and taxes. These measures will be applied to all the companies in the list, as published in the government website.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry of Commerce intends to rectify the mistake, due to which a number of dealers have missed the opportunity to benefit from the support for affected industries. Automotive component manufacturers have stated that they did not receive any support, such as intended for small and medium-size enterprises, due significant trade turnovers and staff numbers. At the same time, the companies remained outside the list of the most affected sectors of the economy, due to the inconsistency of Russian Classifier of Types of Economic Activity Codes. Codes of small groups were included in the list, instead of a common code to all dealers 45.11. Now, by the inclusion of a new code in the list, the activity codes will be changed to an older group, giving the dealers access to tax deferrals, as well as lower interest rates.
