marketplaces and Russian Post are discussing an alternative to infrastructure payment – Kommersant

Marketplaces and online stores offered Russian Post the opportunity to introduce a non-monetary alternative to the infrastructure payment of 0.5% of turnover, reports Vedomosti with reference to sources. According to them, we can talk about the transfer of part of long-distance deliveries to the Post or the right to use warehouses.

Russian Post in the spring proposed to the Ministry of Digital Transformation to oblige marketplace owners and e-commerce market participants, whose annual revenue reaches at least 1 billion rubles, to pay an infrastructure payment in favor of the state-owned company in the amount of 0.5% of the quarterly turnover of goods. The Post estimated the total amount of deductions at approximately 28 billion rubles. per year, and this payment was supposed to support unprofitable post offices in remote areas. The Ministry of Economy announced the need to further develop the initiative, but the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Federal Antimonopoly Service did not support it.

Alternative mechanisms are being discussed during August, one of Vedomosti’s interlocutors specified. According to sources in two large marketplaces, negotiations are not easy, as online stores and marketplaces are not happy that they can be required to pay a competitor. The services that Russian Post can provide to online stores have not yet been approved. As another interlocutor of the newspaper clarified, Post can offer marketplaces offices, warehouses and logistics centers, interregional transportation and information services. Branches can also allocate zones for specific marketplaces.

State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein confirmed to Vedomosti that “such consultations are underway” and in early September, “Post” and marketplaces “will have to present the results of the study.” A Russian Post spokesman said he “won’t comment on the rumors.”

In July, Russian Post introduced restrictions on the distribution of salaries for vacant positions among existing employees and reduced the number of free positions. The decision is due to the deteriorating financial position of Russian Post against the background of the loss of a significant part of cross-border trade, but threatens social tension in one of the country’s largest employers.

Details – in the material “Kommersant” “Post of Russia did not deliver salaries”.

Laura Keffer