The Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) decided to zero the customs duty on the import of electric vehicles to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU; in addition to the Russian Federation includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan) until 2024. A representative of the EEC trade bloc told Vedomosti about this. The decision will take effect 10 days from the date of publication.
But only citizens permanently residing in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will be exempted from paying the fee. The transfer of the rights to own, use and dispose of electric vehicles to persons who have citizenship and / or permanently reside in Russia is not allowed, the EEC stressed.
The use of the tariff exemption in combination with other measures aimed at stimulating demand for electric vehicles, their production and the development of a network of charging stations will help create a “window of opportunity” for the wider distribution of such vehicles, as well as for their production in the EAEU, Vedomosti said. » Andrey Slepnev, Minister for Trade of the EEC.
Starting from 2022, the import duty on the import of electric vehicles into the countries of the Union is 15% of the customs value. Before that, from May 4, 2020 until the end of 2021, there was a preferential regime for the import of electric vehicles into the EAEU, the duty was 0%.
This was done to create incentives for the formation of a charging infrastructure, as well as taking into account the lack of production of such equipment in the countries of the Customs Union and its sharp rise in price as a result of the weakening of national currencies.
At the end of October last year, the EEC Council considered the issue of extending the preferential import regime for electric vehicles to the countries of the Customs Union until 2024. Russia then opposed this initiative (Vedomosti wrote about this on October 29, 2021). And in order to make a positive decision of the EEC, all countries – members of the union had to vote “for”.
A representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade previously told Vedomosti that the zeroing of the rate does not encourage investment in the production of vehicles with a low carbon footprint and components for them in Russia. The Association of European Businesses (AEB) at the beginning of 2022 expressed concern that the abolition of the exemption would cause an increase in the cost of electric vehicles, a slowdown in the development of electric charging infrastructure and demand for this type of vehicle.
In total, 2,254 new electric vehicles were sold in Russia last year, according to the Avtostat analytical agency. This is three times more than in 2020. There is no active production of passenger electric vehicles in our country yet.
Vladimir Bespalov, an analyst at VTB Capital, draws attention to the fact that in the total mass of cars sold (1.67 million new cars and commercial vehicles), sales of electric vehicles are still small. According to him, in the current realities for the Russian market, the return of the duty will not be significant. Given the tense situation with the supply of cars, there may be an increased demand for such equipment, but on a market scale, these are still insignificant volumes, he told Vedomosti.