Customs missed a trillion – Newspaper Kommersant No. 11 (7456) dated 01.23.

At the end of 2022, the Federal Customs Service (FCS) reduced fees to the budget by almost 1 trillion rubles. regarding 2021. All this decrease was accounted for by payments from imports that shrank last year, the export part of customs fees turned out to be in positive territory against the backdrop of rising oil and gas prices. As a result of the multidirectional movement of income from imports and exports, the ratio between them has noticeably changed compared to 2021: the share of income from imports of goods decreased to 53%, from exports – increased to 43.5%. Apparently, this movement will not become a trend: imports are now recovering, while export prices for Russian oil are declining.

Federal budget revenues administered by the FCS of Russia for 2022 amounted to 6.2 trillion rubles, the service said on Friday. This is 15%, or 934 billion rubles, lower than the result of 2021 (7.16 trillion rubles). More specific Ministry of Finance data (Anton Siluanov’s department, we recall, oversees customs) specify that the FCS fees for the past year amounted to 6.222 trillion rubles. with the plan approved by the law on the budget of 6.226 trillion rubles. Thus, the task was completed by customs officers by 99.9% (colleagues from the Federal Tax Service with this indicator, which is sensitive for officials, have a better situation – 115.7% of the plan).

However, plans for revenue collectors are always set by the government on the basis of conservative estimates and in previous years, as a rule, they were overfulfilled (in 2021, the FCS “went through” more than 2 trillion rubles). The task for the customs for 2022 was set based on the average Urals oil price of $62.2 per barrel, but in fact it was much higher – $76.09 per barrel (the best result in the last eight years; see Kommersant on January 9).

So the export part of the administered revenues did not disappoint the customs – according to the service, when exporting goods by foreign trade participants in 2022, 2.7 trillion rubles were paid to the budget. The data of the Ministry of Finance specify that 2.5 trillion rubles. of this amount, export duties on oil, gas and oil products accounted for, and they increased by 12.7% compared to 2021. (Note that the main component of oil and gas revenues – MET fees – increased even more, by 49.7%, but this tax is administered not by the customs, but by the tax service; see Kommersant of January 19.)

Thus, the “shortage” in the amount of almost 1 trillion rubles. from the level of the previous year is explained by the decrease in the FCS fees for imports. According to the service, when importing goods to the budget in 2022, 3.3 trillion rubles were paid. (Let us explain that the total total amount of receipts – 6.2 trillion rubles, in addition to taxes on export / import, also consists of 0.2 trillion rubles of “other income”, which, for example, include fees for registration of deliveries). According to the results of the year, the Ministry of Finance records a decrease in all three components of budget revenues from imports – VAT, excises and import duties. Import VAT collection by 2021 decreased by 18% and amounted to 3.063 trillion rubles. Excise revenues from imports fell by 21%, to 104 billion rubles, import customs duties – by 29%, to 610 billion rubles.

As a result of the multidirectional movement of indicators of budget revenues from imports and exports, the ratio between these two components has changed again. In 2021, the share of import payments amounted to 61% of all customs revenues, export payments – 35%. In 2022, the share of income from the import of goods decreased to 53.2%, and from the export it increased to 43.5%. However, the trend, apparently, such a movement will not. As you know, by the end of the year, imports began to recover, while export prices for Russian goods, especially Urals oil, began to decline.

Vadim Visloguzov