23.06.08

The government may give breaks to small business on policies regarding environmental and industrial safety. President Dmitry Medvedev gave Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev the task of revising current legislation on conducting inspections. Small business should have easier examinations, Medvedev said, while large enterprises are the real concern because they operate large and dangerous industrial facilities. It is not in the state's interest, he says, to compel small businesses to undergo an enormous quantity of inspections: this aids corruption and individual officials end up profiting from bribes.

The Minister of Natural Resources is willing to free small business from environmental controls in several ways. One way is to get rid of licensing procedures for transporting dangerous materials. Another way is to combine the licensing procedures for the storage and purchase of explosives. These amendments to the current law will be proposed to the State Duma in the fall.

Currently such inspections cost businesses in Sakhalin $3000-4000, and $300-400 for those in Moscow, which often forces businesses in the east to come to Moscow. The discrepancy in price is a result of the availability of inspection committees in the two areas.

Some independent experts believe that slackening the controls for small business may lead to an increase in transgressions overall. They say it would be better to decrease the scope of the checks. In 2002 officials attempted to simplify licensing and registration by cutting inspections, but new ones were added in their place, such as an additional safety check for the manager.

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Source: "Vedomosti"