There are more inconveniences than improvements - Crimean entrepreneurs about the “transition” period

Simferopol, June 19 (Navigator, Kirill Boyarin) - Despite the promises of the authorities of the Republic of Crimea that business conditions will soon be improved on the peninsula, and investors, according to the acting. The head of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Sergei Aksenov, “will strive to come to the republic, because comfortable conditions for doing business will be created for them here, and assistance will be provided at the legislative level,” Crimean entrepreneurs have not yet felt any improvement. There is also no promised broad fight against corruption.

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Navigator learned from business people in the republic about how three months within the Russian Federation affected their business.

“Crimea is empty. There are few tourists, so it doesn't get any better. I am a trader at a resort, so I am very dependent on tourists. Now trade has increased by 15 percent, when at such times the growth is usually up to 100%. Due to the fact that the banks were closed, I couldn’t pay taxes, now they seem to have allowed it, but there are huge queues everywhere. They said that by the end of the year we would work according to Ukrainian laws. Now everything has changed, the hryvnia has left the peninsula, and cash registers had to be converted to rubles. In general, there are more inconveniences than improvements,” he told us entrepreneur from the Black Sea region Mustafa Osmanov.

“It happens in every way, there are pros, there are, of course, cons. In May, for example, the introduction of 4% VAT created a lot of inconvenience, because it was taken from turnover, and we do not have such markups. There are products for which there is a markup of 40% and 100% - food, construction materials. There are no such markups for petroleum products. By June they had already switched to all-Russian VAT and the problem disappeared. In general, everything is fine, we don’t complain about life. What has become better is that we sell gasoline, which is 4-5 rubles cheaper than in Ukraine. Hence the buyer is more pleasant,” shares Director of the ATAN gas station network Alexander Tereshchenko.

“There are a lot of inconveniences - at first they promised a transition period until 2016, then until 2015. In the end they reduced it and even the hryvnia was withdrawn and the legislation was changed. It’s not clear how to pay the tax authorities if the banks don’t really work. They promise holidays until the first of July, but I haven’t paid taxes for three months, I want to figure it out. In general, the situation with the hryvnia brought a lot of inconvenience. The authorities set one rate, 3,8, but changed it a week later. Because of this, we had to change price tags, then double price tags were introduced, and when we finally switched to the ruble, it turned out that there were also problems with small change. Now things have more or less improved, but this situation has shaken my nerves quite a bit,” noted store owner Oleg Builov.

“I haven’t felt any changes yet. There is, perhaps, a movement for the worse, because so far my investment projects in Crimea, which were supported by the previous government, have not yet found support in the new authorities. Today I have problems installing advertising letters, for example, or promoting a land acquisition project. There are objective reasons for this, such as the departure of old legislation and the arrival of new legislation, but there are also other reasons - our leaders are busy and there is no one to entrust to continue working on these projects. I cannot deal with all the approvals for projects alone - this will take another 15 years of my life. Of course, this season is not a season of development, but of survival. It’s no secret that no planes or ferries will bring to us the number of tourists as was the case in past years. But the most important thing is that Crimea is quiet, calm and we are at home, the rest can be tolerated,” he emphasized Director of the Skazka Zoo and Taigan Safari Park Oleg Zubkov.