Russia to impose recycling fee on car imports

Russia plans to implement a special recycling fee on car imports as of September, Interfax reported last Friday. The base fee is set at RUR 26.8 ths (USD 840) per imported vehicle, with an engine size not exceeding 2,000 ccm.

Roman Dmytrenko: Though the negative effect of the new fee for most car importers would be offset by a 5 pp decrease in the car import duty as part of Russia’s commitments to enter the WTO this August, Ukrainian Bogdan Motors (LUAZ UK), which sells over 90% of its cars in Russia could become the biggest victim. Importing its cars at zero duty currently, Bogdan will most likely have to raise its passenger car price by at least 10%, which will put it under higher competitive pressure in the Russian market.