To further support the development of small businesses and enhance the efficiency of government support to small businesses, the President of the Republic of Belarus signed Decree No. 255 dated 21.05.2009 “On certain measures of government support for small businesses”. This Decree approved the Regulations on providing government financial support for small businesses out of funds provided within the programs of government support for small businesses.
As determined by the Decree, small businesses are:
• Individual entrepreneurs registered in the Republic of Belarus;
• Microbusinesses - profit-making organizations registered in the Republic of Belarus with not more than 15 employees;
• Small businesses - profit-making organizations registered in the Republic of Belarus with 16 to 100 employees.
Preferential loans are one of the sources of lending for small businesses. Preferential loans are granted by banks out of the local budget funds provided within programs of government support for small businesses and placed into deposits with such banks.
A small business is eligible for loan support from Belagroprombank in the following cases:
• It has a current (settlement) account with JSC Belagroprombank with at least 6 months of movement of funds on this account during the last 6 months prior to the loan application;
• It does not have any overdue payments on obligations towards the bank;
• It has at least 20-30% share in the implementation of the investment project or the business project;
• Its current (settlement) account with JSC Belagroprombank (except for seasonal businesses and newly created small businesses) has regular inflow of funds;
• It does not have a card file of outstanding payments for longer than 15 days (within 90 days before contacting the Bank). Its current (settlement) accounts have not been arrested and no transactions have been suspended on its current (settlement) accounts by the authorized authorities.
• It has not been included into the Register of commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs bearing high risk of economic offence, held by the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of the Republic of Belarus, within the six months prior to the loan application (in accordance with the written recommendations of the Head Office).
Additional loan eligibility requirements for individual entrepreneurs:
• over one year experience working as an individual entrepreneur;
• aged 22 and up;
• the borrower’s age must not exceed 60 years at loan maturity.
Belagroprombank grants preferential loans in accordance with Decree No. 255 to small businesses out of funds of regional executive committees (Minsk City Executive Committee) placed into deposits with JSC Belagroprombank within cooperation agreements signed with the executive committees regarding preferential bank loans for small businesses.
Conditions of loan:
Loan currency: Belarusian rubles;
Loans are granted as a one-time loan or as a revolving credit line.
Interest rate: 0,5 of the refinancing rate set by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus on the date of the decision to grant a loan, plus 3 percentage points;
Maturity date for a loan is determined on the basis of the purpose of the loan:
• for purchase of raw materials and materials for own production within the implemented investment project – for up to 1 year;
• for the creation, development and expansion of production of goods (works, services) within the existing production process; for the creation of production at newly created small businesses – loan term depends on the Project’s pay-off period, but no more than 5 years and not exceeding the period of local budget funds deposit placement.
Government financial support on a competitive basis is provided for solvent small businesses implementing investment projects or business projects, for the purposes of:
• construction, purchase of capital structures (buildings, constructions, isolated premises and (or) repair and reconstruction thereof;
• purchase of equipment;
• purchase of vehicles;
• purchase of special devices and appliances;
• purchase of component parts;
• purchase of raw materials and materials for own production and service rendering.
Financial support is provided for the implementation of the following first-priority projects:
• creation, development and expansion of production of goods (works, services);
• creation, development and expansion of production of export-oriented and import-substituting products;
• manufacturing of products designed for energy and resources saving;
• implementation of new technologies.
Creation of jobs is a mandatory requirement for small businesses to obtain government financial support on a competitive basis.
In accordance with the Decree, a small business is not eligible for government financial support if:
• it is going through reorganization, liquidation (termination of business activity), insolvency (bankruptcy);
• it failed to provide the documents necessary to make a decision regarding government financial support, or if the provided documents contained invalid data;
• it violated the conditions for government financial support less than three years ago;
• it has arrears in payments to the budget and state non-budgetary funds;
• it has losses in the current year as of the loan application date.
