Manufacturers and suppliers of household appliances are against the new classification of heating elements
[ad_1]
Russian manufacturers and suppliers of household appliances are asking the Ministry of Economy to support them in challenging the customs classification of components. We are talking about tubular heating elements (TEN). The EEC intends to tariff their imports at a higher rate, like boilers. RATEK claims that this will interfere with Russian companies that do not have the ability to produce heating elements locally. According to other market participants, the change in the classification code will not affect the cost of household appliances, but their repair may become more expensive due to increased prices for spare parts.
The Russian Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Electrical and Computer Equipment (RATEK, which includes Gorenje, BSH Household Appliances, etc.) appealed to the Ministry of Economy with a request to support the position on the customs classification of heating elements at the next meeting of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) . The letter dated January 29 (available to Kommersant) clarifies that heating elements for irons, washing machines and other household appliances (the base customs duty rate is 5%) can, as a result, be classified as submersible heating elements like household boilers (the rate is 10% ).
The EEC proposes to classify all tubular immersion electric heaters intended for heating water or other media as “immersion electric heaters”, that is, on a par with self-sufficient household appliances. This position is stated in the draft decision of the EEC board, submitted for discussion in June 2023. If accepted, it will enter into force 30 days after publication. RATEK proceeds from the fact that the heating element for household appliances is “inextricably linked with the tank in which it is mounted.” The Federal Customs Service (FCS) has already begun to assign an atypical classification code to components, which “affected the work of Russian assembly enterprises,” the attachment to the letter says.
Changing the customs classification to a less profitable one, according to RATEK representative Anton Guskov, “hampers the development of local production and increases the price of market access.” He emphasized that heating elements are one of the key components of many classes of household appliances, and “there is no component base for their local production.”
The Ministry of Economy and the EEC did not respond to Kommersant’s request. The Federal Customs Service reported that when classifying goods, customs authorities are guided by the basic rules for interpreting the EAEU Commodity Nomenclature for Foreign Economic Activity. Proposals for the EAEU Collegium, the service says, were developed “at the initiative of the business community and on the basis of technical documentation.”
The problem of changing the classification code is much broader and concerns not only heaters, says Vadim Bushuev, director of analytics at BTK LLC: “The service has the right to revise the classification of any product, even if its code was not previously in doubt among customs officers. The right to retrospectively change the classification hardly gives a noticeable increase to the budget, but can destroy any enterprise.”
Business, according to Mr. Bushuev, “is of the opinion that the changed classification rule must first be announced and only from that moment can one be held accountable for its non-compliance.”
The founder of household appliances manufacturer Jacky’s, Huseyn Imanov, believes that an increase in the cost of heating elements can lead to an increase in the price of final products by 10–15%: “In addition to increasing the cost of the heating element itself, the tax on it will increase.”
However, the commercial director of Holodilnik.ru Alexey Pogudalov doubts that the increase in the price of heating elements will not greatly affect the final cost of household appliances at retail: “The cost of an electric heater varies around 500 rubles, and the average price of a washing machine is 33 thousand rubles. Consequently, with an increase in the cost of the heating element, the final cost of the equipment will increase by 25 rubles, which does not seem to be a serious problem.”
A top manager of one of the manufacturers of household appliances agreed with Mr. Pogudalov’s assessment regarding the change in the final price. But the cost of repairs, Kommersant’s interlocutor emphasized, will increase following the prices of heating elements.
[ad_2]
Source link
