RESTAURANTS ASK FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE OF THE BANKRUPTCY THREAT

The petition, filed through the electronic admission office, was also confirmed by a public statement on the change.org platform. More than thirty managers, under whose supervision there are about 100 thousand employees, is a good reason for a reaction from the Government. However, will the governor Alexander Beglov be able to fulfill all the conditions of St. Petersburg top managers?

Restaurateurs note that in the conditions, imposed by the city’s authorities, several months are enough for the complete closure of the business.

Revenue has already halved and continues to fall. Does the city need massive layoffs of personnel?

It seems that apparently not. Therefore, the proposed system of measures in the petition more resembles blackmail. The owners and the managers of catering enterprises suggest following the example of the capital to recognize the situation with COVID-19 as a force majeure circumstance. This would facilitate further negotiations with lessors, providing an opportunity to close establishments for a period of involuntary downtime and not to pay rent for this time.

Another measure, proposed in the petition, might be the tax holidays, which will allow you not to pay taxes to the budget within three to four months after lifting the existing restrictions. In addition to this, similar incentives could be introduced with respect to the utilities. The authorities are able to help with obtaining small loans, as there are state-owned banking institutions.

On the other hand, simplifying the procedures for coordinating the installation of summer cafes with the authorities and exempting from payment for non-stationary points of sale would help restaurants perk up and recover over the summer period.

And finally, the most painful request: to release the institutions from any inspections before the end of the year, if they are not associated with a threat to life and health of the citizens.

Will the government meet the requirements of the restaurateurs? The experts doubt that the most of them will be implemented. The authorities are afraid of the viral effect: first they will ask for money, and then the others. In this situation, someone will still take the fall.

For St. Petersburg, the loss of restaurateurs could result in a serious rollback of the entire tourism infrastructure, especially considering that the existing business is also a civil society, able to compete and observe unspoken rules. 

The situation in St. Petersburg is not unique. Enormous losses, incurred by the restaurant business, are seen all over the world. In Russia, the most severe blow fell on the cities, traditionally visited by the tourists from other countries.

The restaurateurs of Primorye, where the main customers were the tourists from China, Korea and other countries of East Asia, suffer from the losses as well.

In the next few days, appeal to the Government of the Russian Federation will be prepared by the restaurateurs of Vladivostok. Restaurateurs in Moscow have already asked for discounts on renting city’s real estate. The optimists' reference to the possibility of working in the dark kitchen format with take-away food or delivery via the Internet is not particularly inspiring, since it does not solve the entire problem.