Shadayev: recycling tax on foreign IT equipment may be introduced as early as 2024

A recycling fee on imported equipment that has analogues in Russia could be introduced as early as the middle of next year, Russian Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev told reporters.

“I think next year, in the middle,” he said (quote according to TASS).

The government supports the introduction of recycling fees, the minister explained. The proposal to introduce such a fee is contained in the draft strategy for the development of the communications industry until 2035. October 18 Shadayev told, which the authorities intend to use by collecting funds to support Russian production. He also added that the Ministry of Digital Development is against restrictions on parallel imports.

On October 26, Shadayev also stated that in Russia remains An urgent need remains for about 10% of those solutions that were supplied by foreign manufacturers, some of them are already in operation. The minister also noted that state support for the development of domestic solutions exceeded 20 billion rubles, while customers invested over 200 billion rubles.

As Vedomosti previously wrote, the Ministry of Digital Development proposed to the government to increase funding for preferential lending programs for IT companies by 25% until the end of 2023. A representative of the department explained that proposals to increase funding were formed to balance the loan portfolio and maintain interest rates for borrowers.

In June, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the total volume of IT solutions sold and IT services provided in Russia in 2022 reached 2 trillion rubles. The gross added value of these projects amounted to 1.9 trillion rubles, which is 23% more than in 2021. The number of employees employed in the IT sector increased by 12.7% to 740,000 people, and the average monthly salary of these workers was 135,500 rub. (an increase of 18.6%).