Column by Natalya Skorlygina about the side effects of the introduction of export duties

The decision to introduce export duties tied to the ruble exchange rate from October 1 has significantly hit exporters in the pockets, as they never tire of stating. Industry after industry is counting losses, threatening supplies of electricity, jewelry, bran, pulses and a host of other goods. Certain segments are demanding an exception be made for them, and companies are revising their profit expectations.

Less noticeably, this decision caused the expected organizational chaos. For example, the government decree introducing duties was adopted on September 21, but until the beginning of October exporters could not technically do anything: it was impossible to submit declarations with the payment of duties, and without them it was pointless. At the border with Georgia, trucks with goods stopped, for which customs payments had to be recalculated in order to pass control.

The Federal Customs Service issued a separate instruction, which explained the changes in the procedure for customs declaration of goods taking into account the new rules, but this did not help everyone. Questions have arisen regarding the export of goods covered by the resolution by individuals “for themselves”, since according to the decision of the EEC Council in 2017, if goods are exported from the territory of the union for which export duties have been established by its member, then they no longer apply to goods for personal use, and, therefore, individuals can carry them only with declaration and payment of duties.

In some places things reached the point of complete absurdity. Thus, the president of the customs and logistics broker KBT, Yulia Shlenskaya, says that her company, like other market participants, regularly sends documents abroad (for example, to foreign banks) by mail confirming the fact of work performed by foreign transport companies, etc. And here a refusal came from Russian Post – customs did not allow documents that had previously always been processed as duty-free exports with the filing of a declaration. “Because the product code is in the list of government regulations on duties (group 48, which includes paper and cardboard),” she says. “And it turns out that export duties must be paid for these documents.”

Market participants attribute the incidents to the haste in making decisions on duties and the unprecedented scale of their introduction in general. For manufacturers, logisticians and ordinary citizens, paying duties suddenly became the rule, not the exception – with all the ensuing financial and organizational consequences.

Now, apparently, the main thing is to remain calm and be creative. For example, according to the documents, they began to look for another HS code and it turned out that musical notes fit perfectly – group 49, which is not subject to the resolution.