Electronics has become free of charge - Newspaper Kommersant No. 14 (7459) dated 01/26/2023

Electronics has become free of charge - Newspaper Kommersant No. 14 (7459) dated 01/26/2023



According to suppliers of electronics and household appliances, customs duties from its import in 2022 decreased by 40%. Among the main reasons, market participants cite the departure of foreign suppliers, a general drop in demand and an increase in the number of resellers who import goods in small batches without completing customs documents. Distributors believe that fees will continue to fall in 2023. In their opinion, the scrap collection for electronics imported by parallel imports will help increase revenues to the budget, but retailers, who are afraid of rising prices, oppose it.

Sources of Kommersant in two large electronics distributors, familiar with customs statistics, said that in 2022, revenues to the budget of customs payments from the import of devices decreased by about 40%. We are talking about computers, laptops, smartphones, large and small household appliances. Kommersant's interlocutor from among foreign electronics manufacturers confirmed this information. Sources attribute the trend to the withdrawal of foreign suppliers from the country and the legalization of parallel imports.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade assured Kommersant that parallel imports do not affect the volume of customs payments: “An importer importing goods under parallel imports, as well as with the permission of the copyright holder, declares the customs value. If it is not true, the FCS has the right to correct it.” The FCS (they didn’t answer Kommersant there) suspended the publication of statistics back in April 2022.

The consequence of the legalization of parallel imports was the emergence of small dealers who import goods in small batches without completing customs documents, the interlocutors of Kommersant explain: “For example, regional networks work with them.” According to Kommersant's sources, if the situation continues, payments may fall by the same 40% in 2023.

The fall in customs duties is associated with a general decline in sales of electronics, Alexey Pogudalov, commercial director of Holodilnik.ru, believes: “In 2022, the market decreased in terms of turnover by 2021 by more than 10% in all categories. And if we analyze April-December compared to the same period last year, the drop was from 20-30% at all. At the same time, for example, according to Marvel, sales of small household appliances even grew by 5% year-on-year to 156.7 billion rubles.

There are different duties for different categories of electronics and household appliances, from 0% to 15%. In addition to the duty itself, import VAT is also paid during customs clearance, says Alexander Kirilchenko, head of the practice of customs law and international trade at BGP Litigation: “If VAT is 20%, then the customs duty rate varies from product to product, for example, for vacuum cleaners - 3% , and on smartphones or computers - 0%.

According to the lawyer, the customs value of the goods is important for calculating customs payments, since it is a taxable base: “Parallel importers try to find goods at cheaper prices and can import electronics with a lower customs value.” In addition, he clarifies, the composition of the customs value includes royalties (royalties), which are also subject to customs payments: “Parallel importers do not conclude license agreements with brand owners and do not pay royalties.”

Market participants are already proposing a number of measures to the government to remedy the situation, says Aleksey Melnikov, managing partner of F+ tech-Marvel Group of Companies: sales, the introduction of a waste collection for devices, as well as stimulating demand for Russian products.”

But such steps will inevitably lead to an increase in the cost of imported goods for the end consumer, which, in turn, will reduce sales volumes, a Kommersant source in a large retail chain emphasizes. The industry, says the representative of RATEK (which unites M.Video, DNS, Citilink, etc.) Anton Guskov, is against any increase in fees, "especially in an environment where the market is struggling to cope with the risk of a shortage of goods."

Timofey Kornev, Ekaterina Volkova



Source link