Russia’s new car market is in deep crisis, the secondary car market is also falling. Plants are idle, brands are leaving the country, spare parts are rising in price, but you have to drive something. In order to revive the market, Duma deputy Ivan Sukharev suggested considering the possibility of introducing a reduced rate of duty for citizens on car imports from abroad. According to Gazeta.ru with reference to Russia Today, an appropriate letter has been sent to the head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov.
“I ask you to assess the expediency of introducing a preferential duty rate of 5%, at which an individual will be able to register one car within five years, leaving the current rates of 48-54% to pay duty for the second and subsequent cars imported during this period, and to consider creating a special list of vehicles whose importation into Russia is allowed at a preferential rate, entrusting the government with the authority to maintain this list,” the letter says.
The deputy reminded that because of the sanctions imposed on Russia, many foreign automakers have suspended the supply of new cars to Russia, artificially provoking a deficit and a rise in car prices. According to Ivan Sukharev, an alternative in this situation could be the import of cars from abroad for personal use.
There is no reaction to this letter yet. As for the possible list of cars to which the conditions of preferential customs clearance would apply, it could be unified with the list of cars for parallel import, which includes brands of almost all global automakers.