Dual-purpose vodka. Private entrepreneurs and "Minsk Crystal" presented a lively debate on the future of the alkorynka

You have a continuation of history with new initiatives for the development of the alcoholic beverage industry. Recall that the draft decree gives the concern "Belgospischeprom" wide powers to regulate the market of alcohol. In addition, private producers want to reduce the production quotas for alcoholic beverages for sale in the domestic market. Distilleries should only belong to the state. Such approaches have aroused the concern of private companies, who have already sent their arguments to all state bodies. In response to criticism of private traders, the leaders of the Minsk Crystal State Group, which, as demanded Alexander Lukashenko, want to "strengthen the monopoly," have agreed to take a stand.

"These approaches do not take into account the interests of all market players"

Last week, the Alcohol Producers Union (SPAN), which combines the Bulbash plant, Belvingrupp, the production company Syabry, the grape production plant Minsk, Parich Vinarnu and Slavyansky Product, sent a comment at the Ministry of the Economy. Resolution of the Council of Ministers on the establishment of quotas for the production of alcoholic beverages in 2019.

The union noted that their companies fully respected all the criteria applicable to quota applicants. They do not have any tax arrears, at least 20% of the total amount is exported, there is no violation of the quality of alcoholic beverages, the criterion for the l 39; development of quotas for the production of alcoholic beverages allocated in the current year is fulfilled.

Despite this, the draft document provides for a significant reduction in quotas for the production of alcoholic beverages over the next year compared to the volumes established in 2018: for vodka and alcoholic beverages, as well as for grape wines – from more than 20% for rum whiskey – more than 70%. At the same time, companies in the Belgospishcheprom group are concerned that the production quota for vodka and alcoholic beverages drops to 60% of the national quota for this type of product.

It should be noted that companies in the Belgospischeprom group do not fully control the quotas allocated to them for several years. However, for products such as vodka and alcoholic beverages, they do not control up to 20%, which means that even the current volume quotas for them are redundant and require in 2019, not to increase, but to decrease, according to SPAN.

The union believes that the reduction of alcohol production quotas by private companies in 2019 will result in a budget loss of more than 65 million rubles, and that the production capacity of the companies will be unused due to the fact. absence of quotas and more than 200 will remain without work. man And some companies specializing in the production of a short list of alcoholic beverages, especially whiskey, may go bankrupt.

In SPAN, the draft resolution calls itself untreated, in contrast to the state's policy on import substitution and does not take into account the interests of all market players.

"The state has reflected on the dignity of its partners facing private producers of alcohol"

In the group "Minsk Crystal Group", which since 2015 groups together the main producers of alcoholic drinks from other regions (notably "Belalko", "Pridvinje", "Radamir", Grodno and Klimovichi Distillery), they call the arguments of private producers "largely speculative"And suggest finishing the story a few years ago, that is, returning to the balance of quota allocation for the production of alcoholic beverages, established in 2015."

"Minsk crystal" is emphasized that the alcohol is "dual-use products"On the one hand, it is the restocking of the budget, on the other hand, the health of the nation."the state must hold the alcohol market in his hands and regulate it".

In Belarus, there has always been regulation in this sense. In addition, a dozen years ago, only state companies were engaged in the production of alcohol. And their capacity was quite sufficient to meet the needs of the alcoholic beverages market.

But, supporting the initiative of the entrepreneurial spirit and the creation of a competitive environment, the state has allowed private owners to create production capacities of. alcohol while "damaging their interests". As a result, private companies have started "foul play".

For example, after entering into an investment contract with the Gomel Regional Executive Committee, Belvingrupp built an alcohol production facility in the region (today it is the Syabry Production Company). This agreement provided for the absolute export of manufactured goods. At present, the contract is terminated and the total volume of alcohol produced has flooded the domestic market, hardening competition in overcapacity (more than three times the capacity of the market).

SPAN considers that Belvingroup's thesis is completely false.

"The company started production in 2009 and we entered into an investment contract for one of the lines only in 2013," said Belvingroup's director at TUT.BY. Andrey Silivonchik. – It was just one of the company's episodes. The contract was terminated and we did not use the benefits. But neither in the words nor in the documents are talking about the fact that we are going to export 100% of the products or almost. It is strange to talk about our alcohol produced in the domestic market. The company's share in the total production of strong alcohol, vodka, does not exceed 4%.

In addition, private producers note that any industry has excess capacity, not just that of alcohol. This is the market model, and there is no contradiction to that.

The production of alcohol in Belarus with the establishment of quotas is regulated only in terms of supplies on the domestic market. There are no restrictions for the production of export products. The state also claims that it meets all the criteria for quota development ("at the level of quota development throughout the country").

The statistics of recent years show that the estimated needs of the internal market are overestimated each year and that the additional production volumes (quotas) have been distributed only to private companies. For example, with a volume of distillery products of 10 million deciliters, 11.5 to 11.8 million deciliters were actually distributed. At the same time, above-norm volumes were allocated to private producers.

The latter because of "unfair competition"And the systems"bribes"(Payments) have survived tablets of state-owned alcohol producers (MART chairman Vladimir Koltovich spoke about it earlier, commenting on the conflict between Europta and Minsk Kristalla).

– "Normal" competition is fair competition on the same terms for everyone. In practice, we have had different approaches to retail pricing for products on the shelves, depending on the manufacturer, says the state holding. – In fact, the same products of a private and state-owned manufacturer were sold in bulk to the distribution network at almost the same price, but the retail price of a product stall d & rsquo; A state-owned manufacturer has turned out to be more expensive, up to 20%. Naturally, the consumer voted the ruble. Is this a "normal" competition? The same goes for the provision of marketing services, when the producers (suppliers) of alcohol paid premiums, bonuses, and so on. to distribution networks. for the priority realization, of course, of their products. But after all, a state-owned manufacturer can not spend public money for such "promotion" of its products, and in fact to fill the pockets of retail chains.

According to representatives of the Union of Alcohol Producers, the payment of rewards and bonuses is a global retail practice and has nothing to do with bribes, as Minsk Kristall declares unfounded. All commercial bonuses were paid in accordance with the requirements of the legislation in force, pointed out the retailers.

The Minsk Crystal Group reports that the state that holds bonuses pays trading bonuses to customers when a certain volume of purchases is reached. Digital data is not provided.

"The health of the nation will not improve"

Recently, the problem was solved by MART's decision to apply "a single level of trade quotas for all types of products of all manufacturers, regardless of their form of ownership, in terms of the names of groups of products. clbadification of alcoholic beverages ". But private producers were not happy about this decision.

– You want to sell cheap? Set the markup and trade 10%. Sell ​​for expensive? Please, 50% of the commercial margin for all vodkas, whatever the manufacturer … And then we put 40% on Kristall and 10% on Naliboki, because the profit will be withdrawn elsewhere, declared with emotion the holding company.

It is worth noting that the state-owned company, through 130 of its smaller retail stores, sells as much of its products as through the 14 largest retailers, grouping together more than 1,500 stores.

– So, who and what is offended here? Private producers, to whom could the state, say, give up some of their profits, allowing them to produce alcohol, make a profit and withdraw it? Or the state that has not received budget dividends for its share in the authorized funds of state-owned producers, thus jeopardizing the interests of the social sphere (health and education ), public order and defense? The state has the right to wonder how respectable its partners are to private producers of alcohol. At the revision of the tax quotas in the budget will not begin to arrive less. They will be paid by another manufacturer, summarized at the Crystal of Minsk.

In the Union of Alcoholic Beverage Producers, they claim that currently, the entire budget receives more from private producers than from the operating companies. Private operators and farms apply the same rates of VAT and excise tax, but the situation is radically different with respect to the tax on profits and dividends paid to the state, what mentions the exploitation. Only one SPAN company for 2016-2017 paid more than 14 million rubles in income tax. For the same two years, the nine state holding companies paid only 8.7 million rubles of tax on profits and 1.7 million rubles of dividends. In total, the budget received from the state holding about 10.4 million rubles. At the same time, for these two years, state subsidies to the holding amounted to 4.6 million rubles and 6.36 million rubles of revenue carried over from state subsidies, calculated according to the SPAN method. Thus, there is no replenishment of the budget by the companies of the exploitation, but rather the use of money coming from the budget of the State.

As for ensuring the health of the nation, from the mouth of the Minsk Crystal Group, in the opinion of the private producers, this sounds "speculatively"Because it replaces the question of the distribution of powers in the field of regulation of the alcohol market." This question is not related to the initiative envisaged by Belgospischeprom to concentrate all powers of the regulator in his hands.The health of the nation will not improve for this reason, " SPANwho proposes only to leave the regulations in force.

Should Belgospischeprom become a single regulator?

Currently, in Belarus, the production and turnover of alcohol-based products are regulated by 5 state agencies (the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Taxes, the Ministry of Finance). of the economy, MART, Gosstandart), as well as by the local authorities. (For example, in Russia, the management of the alcohol industry is concentrated in the Federal Liquor Regulatory Service of the Ministry of Finance.)

The confusion of functions between them is not able to bring a balanced approach to the development of the industry. In addition, Minsk Kristall's leaders believe that plant-level decisions can cause significant damage to industry and the state.

The new draft decree provides for the empowerment of the Belgospischeprom group with powers and levers to carry out the main task related to the alcohol sector. That is to say the conduct of a unique economic, technical and technological policy in the organizations of the food industry, independently of the owner.

Concern "Belgospischeprom" is not the owner of its member companies: 100% of the shares of the share capital of the management company "Minsk Kristall Group" belong to the Republic of Belarus, says the state holding. However, no restrictive measures include private companies in the group. However, few of them expressed the wish to join the "Belgospischeprom".

As is evident from the state participation report, the problem isgoverning bodyFor the Minsk Crystal Group. The deductions of the company Minsk for the maintenance of the company in 2017 rose to 204 thousand rubles. According to IFRS statements, Belgospischeprom is listed as a shareholder of the company. The total payment of shareholding last year amounted to nearly one million rubles.

Belgospishcheprom's proposal to include private companies in the company contradicts the declared business areas of the government and the MART to create a competitive environment, according to SPAN.

At the same time, none of the state producers has been invited to become a member of the Alcohol Producers' Union, created two months ago.

– Apparently, they created it in a hurry. But another is curious. On November 9, at a meeting in MART, the head of the union, Peter Kozlov (in 1995-2001, was Minister of Commerce, dismissed from office, the reason for the short period during which he held the post On November 20, he was already acting as an expert on the portal pages, and it is impossible for such a moment to examine in depth all the nuances and questions. uses it for its own purposes, it is said in the crystal of Minsk.

SPAN claims that Kozlov's questions, which he did not comment on due to a lack of awareness, related to the retail and non-work activities of producers in the alcohol industry. MARCH could not get any comment.

"It's impossible for someone to live at the expense of another"

At the same time, Minsk Crystal executives do not agree with the opinion of the co-chairman of the Retail Networks Association Natalia Shablinskaya only for trade "such a draft decree is an abyss"And I think the danger to the retail business is greatly exaggerated because of the possible revocation of the license. This legal provision has been in place for many years, but license revocation cases are sporadic and "only used as a last resort, when all other methods of influence do not work".

This decision also aims to strengthen the responsibility of the trade in the respect of the conditions of the regulation with the producers of alcohol, whatever their form of ownership. In addition, in the selling price of vodka, a significant proportion (67%) is occupied by taxes (excise tax and VAT). For example, the commercial debt late on the participation of Minsk Crystal Group raises to 47 million rubles. In this amount, taxes amount to about 31.5 million rubles. "The trade delayed payments, the company did not pay tax on the budget, the budget did not fund the social needs. Such a chain is obtained. Deprivation of a license is a fair punishment corresponding to the act. It is impossible for someone to live at the expense of another, "says the state.

SPAN notes that if the license is revoked, the store (chain store) will not only reduce its turnover, but will certainly become unprofitable, which will not allow it to return the debt to the manufacturer. The main arrears are Belcoopsoyuz companies. "But to our knowledge, the Minsk Crystal Group does not initiate the revocation of these companies' licenses. But there will certainly be a revocation of private retailer licenses under various pretexts. For example, in case of non-compliance with product sales plans of the companies of the company. For failure – revocation of the license, which will cause the bankruptcy of the retailer ", – fear in SPAN.

Что касается дальнейшего развития частных предприятий, то руководители "Минск Кристалла" советуют продавать больше продукции на экспорт, как это делает госхолдинг, у которого за последние три года экспорт вырос в 1,5 раза. "Его никто не упрекнет, что он в каких-то других, особых условиях работает. И развивается динамичней любого частника (прибыль за три года выросла в 1,9 раза) и поддерживает сельское хозяйство, и дивиденды платит государству "- утверждают на" Минск Кристалле ".

В СПАН отмечают, что сегодня практически комментарии А вот экспортная продукция «Минск Кристалла» идет «по демпинговым ценам". "Помимо того что это снижает имидж белорусской алкогольной продукции за рубежом, также сомнительно, что данные поставки приносят какую-либо прибыль, и возможно, в этом кроются причины убыточной деятельности холдинга" – комментируют в СПАН.

Кто должен производить спирт?

Проектом указа также предлагается закрепить с 2020 года за государством исключительное право на выпуск этилового спирта из пищевого сырья. То есть производить спирт смогут только госпредприятия и частные предприятия с госдолей более 75%. Сейчас в Беларуси конкурирует с государством всего один производитель спирта, где доля частника составляет 51%, – Чашникский завод пищевых продуктов. Контрольный пакет убыточного завода государство in 2016 году продало ЗАО «Минский завод виноградных вин». Если проект указа проедет согласование в нынешнем виде, пакет акций собственнику придется вернуть государству.

На "Минск Кристалле" считают, что производство спирта «однозначно»Должно быть в руках государства. А то, что спиртзавод в Чашниках два года назад был продан владельцам "Евроопта", стало следствием особой позиции руководства Витебской области. Хотя в «Белгоспиеепроме» высказывались против такого подхода.

В СПАН отмечает, что Чашникский завод пищевых продуктов на протяжении ряда лет (in 2013-2015 гг.) Находился в тяжелом финансовом положении. Перед проведением акционирования Витебский облисполком предлагал "Белгоспищепрому" приобрести данный спиртзавод, но руководство концерна отказалось от приобретения ввиду его убыточности. Сейчас предприятие стабильно показывает хорошие финансовые результаты. За 2017 год уплатило в бюджет 1,34 млн рублей налогов и перечислило государству 1,38 млн рублей дивидендов. За текущий период 2018 года уплатило в бюджет 1,94 млн рублей налогов и перечислило государству 949 тыс. рублей дивидендов. Как видим, только один этот завод дает поступлений по дивидендам и налогу на прибыль больше в государственный бюджет, чем все предприятия "Минск Кристалл Групп" вместе взятые (с учетом получаемых ими государственных дотаций). Принудительная национализация частной собственности крайне негативно скажется на инвестиционном имидже Беларуси, считают в СПАН.

Что касается мирового опыта, то монополия на алкоголь в той или иной форме (производство спирта, производство алкоголя и (или) его продажа) уже успешно внедрена в таких демократических странах, как Швеция, Финляндия, Норвегия, Исландия, Фарерские острова, большинство провинций Канады и штатов США, Турция, Катар, Тайвань. В России также фактически действует монополия государства после консолидации всех спиртовых заводов в ОАО "Росспиртпром" находящееся в федеральной собственности. Только государство способно качественно регулировать отрасль, производящую сырье для алкоголя, выполняя при этом защитные функции от возможного возникновения и нарастания теневого оборота, утверждают на "Минск Кристалле".

В СПАН считают, что представители госхолдинга намеренно смешали разные виды монополии (производство спирта, производство алкоголя, продажа алкоголя) чтобы выглядело, что такие меры применяются широко. На самом деле такие ограничения имеются не более чем 5% стран мира и отсутствуют почти во всех европейских государствах. И, как правило, все производители алкоголя в Европе являются частными предприятиями. Компания производство спирта на производство спирта на подробнее. В настоящий момент монополия в поставление настоящий момент монополия в поделенной производительного производительная производительная производительность.

P. S. Частные и государственные производители алкоголя высказали свои аргументы. Читатели могут поделиться своим мнением в комментариях.