‘Elmira, if you let it go, it will be difficult to fix it later!’
Rustam Minnikhanov instructed the government's economic bloc to monitor the situation on the labour market
“Unfortunately, this (the editor's note: bankruptcy of enterprises) has already begun across the country. We understand that with such a key rate and such risks in the sale of products, such issues will arise,” warned Rais of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov at the republican meeting of financial, treasury and tax authorities about the threat of bankruptcy of indebted companies. The main thing on the agenda was summing up the results of budget revenues for the first half of the year, but at the very end of the meeting, the republic's leadership had to focus on the problem of transferring workers to part-time employment. So far, it is isolated, but the authorities seem to be seriously concerned about tension in the labour market in Naberezhnye Chelny. Read more about it in the report of Realnoe Vremya.
“The negative dynamics will increase”
The head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov again began the semi-annual republican meeting of financial, treasury and tax authorities of Tatarstan with the “problematic” profit tax. Its collections constantly “fever” the budget, forming holes of varying sizes in it. True, for the authorities, not only its collection is important, but also the economic well-being of enterprises. Good or bad — this is exactly what profit tax collections show.
In the first half of 2025, Tatarstan businesses felt, one might say, a slight malaise. Tax deductions to the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan decreased by 3.7%. The treasury of the republic received 81.1 billion rubles. This is 2.2 billion rubles less than in the first half of 2024.
It would seem that a loss of several percent should not cause concern, since there is still time to catch up on a small lag. However, the leadership of the republic is preparing for the worst case scenario. “Income tax revenues have decreased compared to last year,” Rustam Minnikhanov noted.
Referring to the forecasts of enterprises, he said that in the future, collections will also go down. “According to the expectations of enterprises, such negative dynamics will increase. Preliminary calculations have been made with the Ministry of Finance, the dynamics are not very favourable,” the rais shared.
The depth of the reduction in collections may be significant. Total losses for the year may amount to 13.3 billion rubles, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Faizrakhmanov specified later in his speech. Although there were encouraging trends in the first quarter. Then the plan for collecting income tax was more than fulfilled — 55.9 billion rubles were collected against 42.8 billion rubles. However, the 2024 effect worked on the optimistic figures, when enterprises earned more profit than they expected.
A repetition of this scenario is not expected this year. According to Rustam Minnikhanov, in the first half of the year, 26% of enterprises in the republic showed losses. This became the reason for the decrease in income tax collections. “More and more companies are submitting declarations to reduce the amount of taxes,” confirmed the head of the Federal Tax Service for the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Safiullin. According to his estimates, the total amount of losses increased from 25 billion to 40.4 billion rubles. Where they came from was not directly stated. But, most likely, they were formed as a result of the high cost of borrowed capital and “crushed” the profits of enterprises to zero. On the other hand, if the Central Bank continues the course of reducing the key rate, the amount of losses will change downwards.
In the meantime, Rustam Minnikhanov instructed industry ministries to analyze production indicators of enterprises, consider forecasts and, most importantly, help manufacturers build cooperation ties. And also to use existing support measures and initiate new proposals at the federal level for new assistance measures.
Tatarstan transferred 800 billion rubles to all budget levels
In general, the task of filling the republican budget was fulfilled by 54.5%, which is higher than the norm. The treasury received 276.4 billion rubles in tax and non-tax revenues. Total tax collections to all budget levels amounted to 800 billion rubles, said the head of the Federal Tax Service for the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Safiullin. According to him, deductions to the federal budget increased by 14%, and to the consolidated budget — by 11%.
The main revenues were generated by the mineral extraction tax (309.8 billion rubles), VAT (221.4 billion rubles), profit tax (125 billion rubles), and personal income tax (92.1 billion rubles). However, the global oil price environment has made significant adjustments. Therefore, oil producers have reduced their mineral extraction tax payments by 72.5 billion rubles, and the federal treasury has lost another 13.3 billion rubles from the additional income tax. However, VAT deductions have increased by 44%. Personal income tax continues to break records. Tax deductions have increased by 23.4% to 92 billion rubles, Marat Safiullin reported. Since the beginning of the year, wages in the republic have increased by 21.3%, and an additional 22,000 new jobs have been created, the head of the Federal Tax Service of the Republic of Tatarstan rejoiced.
At the same time, tax authorities continue to combat illegal cashing operations. Here Marat Safiullin once gave an example of exposing the company Trassa7, which cashed money under government contracts through its contractors. “A person cashed more than 3 billion rubles per quarter! Moreover, he was introduced to the rank of VIP clients, who are allowed to withdraw any amount of money,” Marat Safiullin did not hide his amazement. We are talking about individual entrepreneur Gibadulin. After this, the Federal Tax Service, together with law enforcement agencies, identified the perimeter of beneficiaries and contractors who carried out road construction work in the republic under national projects, he specified.
Since the beginning of the year, the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation in Tatarstan, together with the Investigative Committee, has sent 18 materials on signs of tax evasion in the amount of 713 million rubles. But much more has been returned during the investigation — 1.2 billion rubles. In addition, tax authorities conducted 65 on-site inspections, resulting in tax revenues of 5.5 billion rubles. At the same time, the number of complaints from businesses decreased by 6.5%, and 90% of cases in courts are considered in favor of tax authorities. “Working transparently is profitable, since efforts are aimed at creation, and not at trying to hide something," urged Safiullin.
Ice arenas in every district of Tatarstan
This year, Tatarstan is working on implementing new national projects. 44.6 billion rubles were allocated for this, of which over 24 billion are federal funds. It is planned to build over 450 facilities. The development of these funds for the first half of the year was only 38%. Rustam Minnikhanov called for rhythmic work on government contracts, not to delay until the end of the year, so as not to get into time trouble.
But there is also good news. In addition, they are currently considering launching a new program for the construction of ice rinks. “So that each district has its own ice arena," Minnikhanov explained. “There is such a plan, we will start next year, there will be six or eight arenas.”
Some have started laying off workers
At the very end of the meeting, the republic's leadership had to focus on the problem of transferring workers to part-time employment. It turned out that six enterprises in Naberezhnye Chelny had submitted such applications to the employment service. The reason is economic difficulties.
“Six enterprises have applied for part-time employment,” said Tatarstan Prime Minister Alexei Pesoshin, pointing to the appearance of the first alarming signs of layoffs in the labour market.
In response, the head of the Ministry of Labour Elmira Zaripova explained that workers are being transferred to other enterprises in Naberezhnye Chelny. “We are working on them, there are proposals for transfer. We are implementing them in Naberezhnye Chelny,” she said.
“We see layoffs here and there, bankruptcy risks, Elmira, it will be difficult to fix them later,” Rustam Minnikhanov pointed out the need to quickly mitigate risks in the labour market. “Unfortunately, this (the editor's note: bankruptcy of enterprises) has already begun across the country. We understand that with such a key rate and such risks when selling products, these issues will arise,” he noted.
Rais Tatarstan appealed to the government with a request to pay attention to this issue:
“Mr Pesoshin, this topic needs to be considered separately. It is necessary to look at more than just salaries. It is important for us to preserve labour collectives, and such a threat exists. Midkhat (Shagikhametov, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan), Elmira (Zaripova, Minister of Labour of the Republic of Tatarstan), look at the labour market together, where and how (the editor's note: to transfer personnel),” Minnikhanov instructed.