Moldova plans to change the criteria for defining Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
The Ministry of Economy is preparing a corresponding draft of amendments to the law on small and medium-sized enterprises. The draft envisages the increase of the size of income and assets of business when defining the type of SMEs. Thus, companies with an annual income from sales and assets value up to 18 million lei will be considered micro-enterprises (today, the income from sales and assets value should not exceed 3 million lei for micro-enterprises). It has been proposed to classify as small enterprises the subjects with annual incomes of sales up to 50 million lei or with assets up to 50 million lei (at present the sales and assets value for small enterprises is up to 25 million lei). For medium-sized enterprises the annual amount of income or assets is proposed to be increased from 50 million lei to 100 million lei. These changes will allow a larger number of enterprises to meet the SME definition and benefit from state support schemes for this category of business. In the current crisis conditions, such support is most needed by businesses. It is worth mentioning that the criteria for defining SMEs in Moldova have not been changed for 16 years, however, they need to be reviewed in light of inflation and economic growth. At the same time, the European Commission recommends higher thresholds for defining the types of SMEs: micro-enterprises - annual sales revenue or assets - up to 2 million euros and number of employees - up to 10 persons; small enterprises - sales revenue or assets - up to 10 million euros and number of employees - up to 50 persons; medium enterprises - sales revenue - up to 50 million euros or assets - up to 43 million euros. In the countries of the region the criteria for defining SMEs are also higher than in Moldova. // 09.06.2022 – InfoMarket
