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To help the poor, the authorities are ready to develop a food-sharing program. The Ministry of Industry and Trade supports such a project, Izvestia was told in the ministry. In recent years, departments have been discussing the introduction of bank "food cards" for those in need. But the ministry considered that it was rational to develop the food-sharing program and the transfer of products with an expiring shelf life. Now such charity is unprofitable for retailers, since they have to pay VAT. And this is more expensive than the disposal of products, the Ministry of Industry and Trade explained.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade supported the development of the food-sharing program in Russia, Izvestia was told in the press service of the department. Such a project assumes that retail chains will be able to transfer products with an expiring shelf life to those in need for free. We are only talking about food that is fit for consumption, has the necessary quality certificates and complies with current regulations.

— The Ministry of Industry and Trade considers it expedient to develop a food-sharing program in Russia. According to expert estimates, if retail chains donate food products with a short shelf life to charity, this can support those in need and save about 1 million tons of food per year, the ministry noted. - This issue needs to be worked out and discussed with the Federal Tax Service, since this type of operation needs to be exempted from VAT.

The ministry emphasized that now it is more profitable for retailers to write off goods and dispose of them than to donate products to charity.

According to research, more than 17 million tons of food waste is generated in Russia every year, the Ministry of Economic Development reminded Izvestia. In addition to the humanitarian side of the issue, the disposal of such an amount of garbage is fraught with consequences for the environment. Therefore, the department has a positive attitude towards the idea of ​​further development of foodsharing, they said.

Izvestia sent requests to the Federal Tax Service, the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as to the largest retailers: X5 Group (Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel networks), Magnit, Auchan, Metro and others. Earlier, business representatives said that they support the development of food charity programs.

Earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to allocate financial assistance to the poor for the purchase of domestic products. It was assumed that the funds would be transferred to a special bank card and could only be spent on certain types of goods.

“The decision to launch the Food Certificate program has not been made,” the Ministry of Industry and Trade told Izvestia.

“The development of foodsharing and the launch of the project of social food cards do not exclude each other, the programs could develop in parallel: they have fundamentally different sources of funding,” says Petr Shelishch, chairman of the Consumers Union of the Russian Federation. — For food sharing, these are charitable foundations that can receive money or products from private companies and people. The food card program requires funds from the state budget.

Petr Shelishch noted: food charity exists in all developed countries and many developing ones. Some of them simultaneously operate state programs to support the poorest citizens with money. They are transferred to special cards so that people can pay for groceries. In Russia, food sharing is still represented by one fund, so the need for such support is far from being satisfied, the expert believes.

In his opinion, charitable foundations should have lists of applicants, to whom specialists could promptly inform about the receipt of a batch of products. Such lists can include the official unemployed and those who receive housing subsidies from the budget, Petr Shelishch suggested. These same people are the first applicants for budget food cards, if they ever appear, the expert explained.

The head of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, Yaroslav Nilov, agrees with the public figure: food sharing and food cards can exist together. He stressed that the regions began to use targeted food assistance, this program was launched in the Moscow and Kaliningrad regions. Food sharing in the Russian Federation is not legally formalized in any way, but as a charity it can be done even now, the parliamentarian noted.

The program of targeted food assistance to citizens in theory solves social and economic problems, that is, it helps people in need and expands distribution channels for domestic products, Alexander Borisov, chairman of the council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the development of the consumer market, told Izvestia. After all, food cards mean that the poor receive funds that can only be spent on Russian goods. This approach has been discussed in the Russian Federation for more than five years.

“This project received the support of almost all departments that discussed it, and public organizations,” the expert noted.

Only the Ministry of Finance was against it, he recalled. The financial department did not change its position during this time: it reported that there were no funds in the treasury for the implementation of this approach - it demanded 300-800 billion rubles from the budget (depending on the coverage of the population), Alexander Borisov added.

According to him, food sharing is a volunteer project that can be launched even now if people and companies are ready to support those in need.

Last week, representatives of the "Fair Russia" discussed the program of targeted food aid with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. The co-chairman of the faction, Gennady Semigin, clarified to Izvestia that the party at government and parliamentary platforms proposed introducing such support for people at a difficult time. According to the politician, the party is developing various mechanisms for new types of state social assistance, including food certificates.