The authorities will tighten control over the sale of foreign currency earnings by exporters. A special mechanism has been developed for this, Vedomosti reports. The Central Bank and Rosfinmonitoring have already sent out new instructions to companies in accordance with the October decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In particular, exporters will have to maintain reports in five forms, including on the sales schedule – once a week, on foreign assets and liabilities – once a month. Companies must also report any outstanding customer obligations under existing contracts. In addition, they will have, for example, to decide which group members will sell the currency.
In fact, the main difficulty for exporters is that they need to streamline their income, and, therefore, make it completely transparent, says Andrey Kochetkov, leading analyst at Otkritie Investments:
“Companies need to bring their foreign income out of the shadows, and not leave it in accounts in other countries. The new rules only streamline what should have happened before. Since March 2023, another decree has been in effect that some exporters can leave their proceeds in foreign accounts.
But, in all likelihood, this is a rollback of this decree, that is, companies will have fewer and fewer opportunities to leave money abroad. The situation is twofold. On the one hand, companies seem to have to give away more foreign currency earnings and receive their funds in ruble form.
On the other hand, these are, after all, Russian organizations that operate in the ruble zone, so after appropriate government action they will be interested in a relatively stable exchange rate of the national currency.
And if the ruble is stable, then what difference does it make to them in what currency they receive their income? Companies may lose in terms of foreign exchange positions, but they will gain from the unchanged domestic exchange rate. Although we generally believe that exporters are always interested in the ruble weakening, because their expenses are in the ruble zone, and their incomes are in foreign currency. You will need to learn to work in a stable situation.
There is only one problem: exporters will really have to report and put things in order in their taxes, which they must pay to the budget. It’s just that after geopolitical events, companies formed a large number of foreign subsidiaries, which they use to ensure their supplies. These organizations are often in the shadows and do not pay taxes to the budget.”
The newspaper's interlocutors separately clarified that for each direction a separate form is expected, which exporters will have to send to the Central Bank or Rosfinmonitoring. What raises the most questions is the fact that companies will have to account for all their subsidiaries.
In fact, the new rules quite effectively close the remaining loopholes for exporters, says Evgeniy Mironyuk, stock market expert at BKS World of Investments:
“The decree signed by the president, which came into force on October 16, stated that it is necessary to provide indicative plans and schedules for the purchase and sale of foreign currency. Now it turns out that it is necessary to approve this schedule with the authorities. That is, state control is exercised here, and this schedule can be adjusted accordingly by the authorities.
The meaning is clear: now the currency tax period, which occurs at the end of the month, is of great importance for the ruble. Many speculative market participants take advantage of this opportunity. Approval of the schedule with the authorities will help to sell currency regularly and avoid synchronicity in the sale of this currency on the 20th of each month.
Also disclose the asset and liability management plan – essentially, information about loans. This is done in order to better control foreign exchange flows and avoid a situation where, with the help of foreign currency loans and balances in the accounts of subsidiaries, it is possible to leave part of the foreign exchange earnings abroad and not make it accountable.”
As Kommersant wrote at the end of November, sanctions have changed the mechanisms of foreign exchange payments for exports and added motivation to companies to leave money abroad. To control these flows, the government has tightened restrictions. In particular, as the newspaper clarified, legal entities were required to report quarterly to the Federal Tax Service on the flow of funds. Until then, they were required to report credits and debits to the account, indicating only transaction codes.
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