about supporting internal platforms; Terms and details
According to Aetna from Isna, the Ministry of Communications came with all its might to support the ecosystem of domestic messengers and domestic production, and the Minister of Communications required all of his subordinates to help. For this reason, several meetings were held to remove the legal obstacles caused by the free transfer of facilities to domestic messengers in the infrastructure board of directors, and after the approval of the matter in the board of directors, the allocation of five billion tomans of loans to managed funds, the provision of 50 gigabits per second of domestic bandwidth for Each of the messengers was approved in steps of 10 gigabytes and considering five gigs of internet in steps of one gigabyte, which required that each of the messengers submit their requests in each section.
The government’s support for the promotion and support of domestic platforms continued, but this process gained more momentum during the last two months due to the restriction of two foreign messengers by the competent authorities, so that the plan to support internet businesses in history It was unveiled on November 10 of this year with the presence of Issa Zarepour, Minister of Communications and Information Technology. About the details of this regulation, it can be said that it includes 14 articles and 30 types of government support for domestic businesses and platforms.
According to this report, in the unveiling ceremony of this plan, it was said that one of the missions that the president gave to the ministers is in the digital economy sector. We believe that the discussion of digital economy has a great contribution to the economy of the whole country. 35 to 40 percent of the gross national product in some countries is made up by this sector; The statistics in our country also show that this sector constitutes about 7% of the gross national product.
According to Zarepour, the digital economy has three layers, the first layer is the communication and information technology sector, the second layer is the discussion of platform-based economies, and the third layer is the application of communication and information technology in other sectors such as smart agriculture, smart medicine, etc.; In order to achieve the goal of at least 10% of the gross national product in all three layers, many efforts are being made by friends and its approvals will be finalized over time.
In this regulation, very good facilities are provided in various sectors, which, according to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, is a very big step to support internet businesses, and if this regulation is fully implemented, it will definitely be a big event in the country. it fell. Regardless of what happens next for the two foreign platforms, this path will be followed and this capacity will be provided for Internet businesses to promote themselves; Also, the government supports internet businesses and will definitely follow this path.
Details of regulations for the protection of digital businesses
In the aforementioned regulations, various support and privileges are considered for Iranian businesses and platforms, for example, in the field of various payment services, users who operate on internal platforms, benefits such as the possibility of setting up an escrow account, purchasing credit from eligible platforms. , direct payment, setting up a wallet, providing a payment gateway for the platforms covered by the central bank and the possibility of using the Rial code if it is set up. Either in the accreditation section for internet businesses and users, it is possible to grant a special badge or a special business tick to authenticated platforms and businesses, or for general users to get a certified badge (blue tick). ) to be provided.
Also, in this support package, cyberspace users have special banking facilities that can be used for things like paying facilities to businesses that migrate from foreign platforms to eligible platforms, accepting people’s user accounts for their financial validation in banks based on the instructions that The central bank prepares, it is allowed to accept the account guarantee of people with a high following by banks based on the instructions that the central bank will prepare.
Two billion tax exemption for internet businesses
However, for users who work on domestic platforms, special support in the field of taxation has been considered, which can include things such as tax exemption up to two billion tomans of income per year for businesses that do not have a tax history, tax discount for And the works with tax file and accepting the costs of setting up and developing business and included platforms as acceptable tax expenses. Based on this, the noteworthy issue is that a special privilege has been considered for businesses and people who operate on the internal platform and they are exempted from paying taxes for up to two years.
According to this regulation, a tax discount is considered for eligible businesses that have a tax file, and based on this, if a business has a tax file, they will enjoy tax discounts if they operate on domestic platforms. In another section of the tax section, it is mentioned to accept the costs of setting up and developing the business and the included platforms as “acceptable tax expense”. According to the announcement of the Minister of Communications, when the expenses related to the development and launch of supported platforms are accepted as acceptable tax expenses, it means that it can be deducted from the platform’s tax liabilities. It should be mentioned that in this regulation, three paragraphs are dedicated to tax exemptions and protections.
Of course, the details of this support have not yet been announced and criteria will be determined based on which platforms will be included. In this regard, the head of the Tax Affairs Organization told ISNA about the details of how to implement tax protection for businesses: this issue is being investigated; The Tax Affairs Organization is a part of the working group that was formed for this purpose, and the details will be announced when the results are ready.
Establishment of internal platforms in science and technology parks
But in this regulation, a special support has been considered for the included platforms and they can enjoy the legal benefits of being in science and technology parks. In fact, in order to support and enjoy the advantages of the platforms in science and technology parks, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is obliged to provide the conditions for the acceptance and establishment of the main offices and branches of the included platforms in the information and communication technology park or its provincial branches.
According to this report, a person who was providing services at his home, as soon as he enters the domestic platforms, he may have concerns about the license, which according to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, a measure has been taken in this regard with the coordination of the Ministry of Economy, so that everyone To set up his business on the platforms included, his registration on the platform means getting a license from the national license portal. Registration is also online and probably requires a few items of information from the National License Portal, which they must receive, and if they upload the information, they will receive the license for registration-oriented businesses, which most of those who fall into this category are all included. be.
60% of small businesses are active on the internal platform
According to the report published by the National Cyber Space Center, more than one million small businesses are currently operating on 10 domestic platforms. After crossing and removing common items, it was found that more than 60% of micro businesses are active in domestic platforms. Currently, 41.8 percent of the social network users (equivalent to 23 million unique users) have joined internal messengers and social networks and have become active users of these platforms. The efforts of these platforms to improve the quality and quantity of services and meet the maximum needs of users will gradually increase the number of active users, increase the attraction of small businesses in domestic platforms and consequently the growth and development of the ecosystem of virtual businesses in domestic platforms.
The Minister of Communications and Information Technology, in the public meeting of the Islamic Council last week, while examining the questions of a number of members of the parliament, referring to the measures taken to improve internal messengers and social networks, said: In this context, a special working group for the development of internal messenger services will be launched. has been Our goal is to improve internal messengers so that when people use them, they feel no different than external messengers. In these two months, every day, I monitored the progress of the internal platforms and used all the capacities to see the strengthening of the internal platforms so that people would prefer to use them. With the support provided, good features have been added to the internal platforms and today we are opening each of these platforms, many people have joined them, this shows the trust of the people in the internal platforms.
According to Zarepour, a domestic platform witnessed the presence of 17 million users in one day, which is a record in the history of the country. Now 60% of consumption traffic returns to the domestic sphere and for the first time the traffic of domestic production has doubled, all this shows the trust and luck of the people in domestic platforms We are looking to create new capabilities that people will embrace more than the built-in platforms.
Which internet businesses are supported?
In this regard, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology published the criteria for identifying the platforms included in the plan to support digital economy platforms and businesses and the conditions for benefiting from its support. According to this call, three main categories of indicators, including indicators of public acceptance of the platform for users, indicators of public acceptance of the platform for businesses, and indicators related to software and technical capabilities, are taken into consideration to identify platforms included in the support plan for digital economy platforms and businesses. has taken.
According to the announcement of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, based on the aforementioned call documents, the platforms that obtain more than 65% evaluation points by presenting positive documents will be subject to the protection of the bylaws for the support of digital platforms and businesses approved by the Digital Economy Working Group, as well as platforms Those who manage to get between 50 and 65 percent of the evaluation points will also be able to benefit from some of the plan’s support according to the relevant regulations.