On April 1, prices for cars imported from the EAEU countries will increase - and this is not a joke

Today, the first of April, the day of laughter, pranks and jokes, a new recycling fee begins to apply. There will no longer be any benefits when importing cars from countries that are members of the Eurasian Economic Union to Russia.


No matter how many people would like it, this is not a joke. Everything is absolutely serious. Moreover, those “in the know” have been preparing for this for a long time. After all, the corresponding resolution of the Russian government was adopted on February 13.

Now it doesn’t matter from which country the car will be imported to us. You will have to pay all customs duties for it. By the way, there are no recent increases. It's all about the recycling fee.


Customs duties cannot be increased in accordance with the agreement between the countries belonging to the EAEU. But recycling collection - please. Moreover, they did this due to outright speculation by a number of “gray” dealers. Because of them, by the way, the “officials” suffer.

In order to understand the scale of the problems and lost funds, let’s present “dry” figures from impartial statistics. Official dealers supply 17% of cars through the EAEU countries. And for parallel imports they are already 60%.

The funny thing is that Kyrgyzstan ranks second in terms of volumes of supplies to Russia. But it doesn’t have its own automobile industry at all.

On the one hand, there seems to be no speculation here. After all, when importing into the same conventional Kyrgyzstan, cars still have to be cleared through customs. And according to the rules of the EAEU, a repeated procedure in other countries, members of the union, is not necessary.

It's just that everyone's rates are different. Kyrgyzstan or Azerbaijan do not have their own car manufacturers. Therefore, customs rates there are much lower - somehow you have to buy cars.

And Russia needs to protect its automakers. And although this is not entirely fair competition, you have to come to terms with it. Otherwise, in the end there will be no brands left in the country at all. And there will be no point in opening assembly plants. And these are losses for the economy.


Enterprising Russian businessmen have long understood the scheme. They make money not only from customs duties.

Firstly, in Kyrgyzstan it is possible to underestimate the cost of imported cars; there they look at this with a blind eye. Secondly, VAT there is 12% versus Russian 20. Thirdly, excise duty in Kyrgyzstan does not exist at all.

The result is logical - cars are imported into Russia, while prices are slightly lower than those offered by official dealers. By the way, from April 1, the cost of cars in the latter showrooms will not change. For the “officials” everything will remain as before.