16 regional winners of the grant competition of the Federal Tourism Agency have been waiting for financial resources for more than six months. What is the reason, and what steps are being taken to resolve the issue – said the chairman of the Tourism Committee of the Murmansk region, Alexander Eliseev.
At the end of August 2020, an order was signed by the Government of the Russian Federation on allocating an additional 1.2 billion rubles to support the domestic tourism business. The amount of financial assistance for each specific project was to be determined by the competition commission of the Federal Tourism Agency at the request of the applicant. The maximum amount of one grant was 3 million rubles.
In mid-November, the results were announced: the competition commission supported 474 projects from 74 regions, 16 projects from the Murmansk region.
Many people expected to implement their projects by the beginning of the summer season-2021 and began to do it: according to the rules, the winner must invest his own funds in the project – at least 30% of the grant amount.
"After the announcement of the results of the competition in mid-November, the Federal Tourism Agency promptly concluded agreements with the winners. But the procedure was postponed to 2021 due to the peculiarities of the budget process and subsequently delayed due to the need to renegotiate new contracts already this year. The government order on allocating funds to Rosturizm this year was signed on April 2, in fact, the money was received by the department in mid-April, and only then it became possible to start distributing them to the winners. The procedure is carefully monitored by the Federal Treasury, " Alexander Eliseev stressed.
According to the head of the committee, many grantees have no experience of communicating with the Treasury, and they have to get acquainted with new procedures for them. Employees of the Tourism Committee of the Murmansk Region regularly help the winners: they give detailed instructions, simplify access to information systems, conduct a preliminary check of information sent to the treasury, but the delivery of budget funds also depends on the timely actions of the grantee himself.
"The last procedures for attaching letters of credit for the won amounts are being carried out now. Payments will be received by the winners in installments based on specific costs or prepared payment documents. Compensation is also provided for those expenses that the winners have already incurred as part of the implementation of their project, starting from the date of awarding them victory in the competition. If the grantee has approved the information in the treasury and additional agreements are signed, the money will be brought in the near future. Many entrepreneurs have difficulty understanding the complex process of maintaining treasury accounts, as a result, they cannot yet receive grant funds, " the head of the committee noted.
Also, due to the change in the terms of granting grants, some projects have become more expensive, and entrepreneurs plan to abandon their implementation.
To solve the situation, the regional Tourism Committee, together with the Ministry of Arctic Development and Economy of the Murmansk Region, plan to train grantees on how to maintain a treasury account. The possibility of supporting SMEs with preferential loans for the implementation of projects is also being considered.
/ Committee for Tourism of the Murmansk Region /