Licensing of activities and licensing procedure

Licensing of entrepreneurial activities in the Russian Federation is carried out on the basis of the requirements set forth in Law 99-FZ, where Part I contains a full list of business lines that require the issuance of appropriate permits (licenses). In the current version of the law, this list currently contains 49 names of such species.

It should be noted that legislation in this area is becoming more liberal. The number of businesses subject to licensing is constantly decreasing. So, the previous version of the law contained a list of 105 items. It is also important that some provisions of this new law on the terms of the law are not fully enforced. This is because it takes time to take appropriate measures to exclude certain activities from the lists. The current version of the law provides that licensing of activities in Russia, which are excluded from the list, is carried out by temporary orders of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Legal act No. 99-FZ, which regulates the licensing of activities, is enforceable in all cases where the law establishes the need for licensing, except for the following cases:

1) production of nuclear energy;

2) manufacture and turnover of alcohol-containing materials and alcohol;

3) actions to protect state secrets ;

4) credit activity;

5) exchange activity;

6) operations with assets;

7) the activities of investment funds and specialized depositories and their management;

8) work of pension funds;

9) clearing activity ;

10) implementation of insurance services.

For these lines of business, special procedures are provided. They are established by specially developed and adopted normative acts. In addition, the licensing of activities in certain areas can be carried out in accordance with other legislative acts of the Russian Federation, in particular, the provision of communication services, radio and television broadcasting, access to Internet networks, detective and security activities, and the provision of educational services. The succession of legislative acts is ensured by the provision of Act No. 99-FZ stating that licensing of types of activities not mentioned therein is terminated immediately after the law enters into force.

As the law provides, licensing of activities begins with the preparation of documents for the issuance of a license that has an indefinite nature. Moreover, if the rules and terms of licensing were changed during the validity of the license that has already been received, then after the expiration of its validity period, only those licensed in accordance with the new law should be reissued. It also establishes that any information on licensing documents is open and must be provided on demand no later than five days from the date of the request.

To establish the reliability of information and verify the documents submitted by the applicant for the licensing of activities, 45 days are elapsed from the moment the licensing body receives the documents from the applicant. The procedure for licensing and issuing relevant documents is universal and extends to the entire territory of the Russian Federation. The law does not establish any simplification with regard to its passage. In the course of the procedure, which provides for the licensing of certain types of entrepreneurial activities, the documents that the applicant submitted to the licensing authority are inspected, and representatives of this body can travel together with the employees of the prosecutor's office to learn more about the circumstances of the declared business.