The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has signed a law aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of privatization of State and municipal property and facilitating participation in such privatization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Existing legislation provides for the primacy of the right of SME entities to acquire immovable property in their temporary possession or use continuously for two or more years for objects not included in the list of State or municipal property intended for transfer to SME entities. The new regulations reduce the mandatory tenancy period to one year.

The law also provides for the establishment of an initial price for the sale of property. When public and municipal property is sold at a minimum allowable price, its initial price is set at 5 per cent of the price of the original proposal. If the price of the original proposal exceeds 20 million roubles, the initial price shall be set at 10 per cent.

In order to participate in the sale at a minimum allowable price, the applicant makes a deposit of 1 per cent of the price of the original proposal. The document confirming the receipt of the invoice is the discharge from the account. A proposal for the price of public or municipal property shall not be allowed, in which the price of such a proposal at the time of submission is equal to or less than the most bidders. Within five days from the date of the sale at a minimum allowable price, the sum of the tenders shall be returned to the parties, except to the buyer or to a person recognized as the only bidder at a minimum admissible price, in the case established by law.

If only one person recognized as the sole bidder or only one person is allowed to participate in the sale without a price, the contract shall be made with such person at the initial sales price. The Act sets a time limit for applications for non-pricing, recognition of bidders by bidders and sale.

The law will increase the impact of bidding
The initiative noted that the document did not affect the terms of the purchase of the leased items included in the relevant list, thereby maintaining the revenue of the respective budgets from the rental of such property. The Act aims to complement the privatization of public and municipal property without a price, which will protect tenders against unfair buyers and, as a consequence, increase their impact.

The law, with the exception of a number of provisions, shall enter into force on the date of its official publication.

The national project " Maloye and Middle Entrepreneurship " has been initiated by the President of the Russian Federation and is being co-chaired by the First Vice-Prime of the Government of the Russian Federation, Andrei Belousov.