The head of the Association “OPORA Russia” Alexander Kalinin in a letter to the Chairman of the state Duma Sergei Naryshkin, which was at the disposal of the newspaper “Kommersant”, asked the head of the lower house of Parliament to interfere with the consideration of amendments to the law “On trade”, reducing the size of the bonuses charged trading networks with suppliers, and schedule for payment.
Kalinin in his letter notes that after the adoption of the amendments in the first reading (last may) it was agreed to finalize the document. “Leading industry suppliers unions and “Support of Russia” presented their proposals. Nevertheless, further negotiation of the bill has not advanced,” he writes.
According to a member of the Presidium of “OPORA Russia” Alexey Nebolsin whose comment in the publication, the delay of adoption of amendments to the law “About trade” is beneficial primarily to the retail. “At stake is about 540 billion rubles., who are in chains, as if to pass the bill, they will remain with the producers,” he said.
The Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on economic policy, one of the authors of the amendments to the law “About trade”, Victor Zvagelsky, in turn, explained “Kommersant” that the long preparation of the bill for the second reading stems from the fact that until now not received the amendments from the government.
“We see in the delay a deliberate process — perhaps the retailer has managed to convince the government into irrelevance of the proposed changes,” said Zvagelsky.
In the Ministry of industry and trade, responsible for drafting government amendments, the publication reported that long preparation of the bill connected with conciliation procedures.
While the Ministry reported that it had sent the finalised draft amendments in the government on March 17. In the latest version of the document allowable aggregate amount of payments for the promotion of food products in the networks is raised to 5%, and terms of payment products increased to 8-40 days.
Amendments to the law “About trade” have been made by a group of senators and deputies headed by Irina Spring on January 21. They are tightening restrictions for the networks compared to the existing law. Including the bill provides for a reduction in the maximum permitted size of petrobonus (award for sales paid by suppliers to the stores) from 10% to 3% of the supply amount and the prohibition of any additional payments to the network providers. In the first reading the law was adopted on may 19.
In July 2015 the Ministry has posted for public comment its draft amendments to the law “About trade”. The second reading, the Ministry has proposed to prohibit the payment of all of the possible types of rewards, including retro-bonuses.
The draft amendments to the law “About trade” has caused a mixed reaction and has become the object of harsh controversy. The Committee ekonompolitike state Duma approved the bill, despite the lack of a formal review of governments and objections of the representative of the Ministry of industry and trade.
