Tatarstan showed electric traction for benefits

The authorities of Tatarstan plan to exempt owners of electric vehicles from paying transport tax for five years. The corresponding bill was approved by the budget committee of the State Council of the Republic. Tatarstan ranks second after Moscow in terms of the number of charging stations for electric vehicles, but the equipment does not bring profit – there are only 300 electric cars in the region. Thanks to the new exemption, authorities expect the regional electric car fleet to grow more than tenfold by 2030.

On Wednesday, the Committee of the State Council of Tatarstan on the budget approved a bill exempting owners of vehicles equipped only with electric motors from transport tax from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2028. In 2029-2030, the owners of electric transport in Tatarstan will pay 50% of the tax, then in full. The bill will be considered at the session of the State Council of Tatarstan in mid-September.

The draft amendments to the regional law “On transport tax” was presented by the deputy of “United Russia” Roman Mugerman. “The purpose of the bill is to stimulate the use of electric vehicles and the development of charging infrastructure,” he stressed. The deputy recalled that Tatarstan is included in the list of pilot regions where charging infrastructure for electric transport is being created. The amount of funding for this program is 322.7 million rubles. for three years, 317 million rubles. of which is federal money. By 2024, at least 194 charging stations for vehicles with electric motors should operate in the republic. Now there are more than 80 such stations in Kazan alone. “Regions have obligations to ensure the loading of data from charging stations,” said Mr. Mugerman.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at the beginning of 2023, only 299 cars with electric motors were registered in Tatarstan. “The adoption of the draft law will entail an estimated loss of income of 2.85 million rubles. per year, ”Roman Mugerman cited the calculations. He believes that the losses “will be more than offset by additional electricity consumption.” According to the deputy’s forecasts, up to 4.3 thousand electric vehicles will appear in Tatarstan by 2030.

The bill caused a discussion in the State Council. “This issue was considered earlier, but then we considered it irrelevant,” Leonid Yakunin, head of the United Russia Committee on Budget, Taxes and Finance, reminded his colleagues. Now the decision on tax preferences was approved by the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. At the same time, Leonid Yakunin drew attention to the fact that “the resolution of the president (now the raisa of the republic.— “b”) was for two years of benefits”, and not for five. In response, Roman Mugerman pointed out that owners of electric vehicles are already exempt from tax in 35 subjects of the federation (including Moscow), and “a dozen more have introduced 50 percent benefits”: “Therefore, we are catching up.”

Mr. Mugerman was supported by another member of the committee, United Russia Leonid Baryshev: “Tatarstan is in second place in terms of the provision of charging stations after Moscow, but we are zero in terms of loading.” According to the deputy, charging stations in Kazan do not bring profit. “And we need to convert all taxis to electricity. Five years – this should be the minimum period for benefits, ”the parliamentarian insisted.

It should be noted that Roman Mugerman in the past headed Kamaz-Marko LLC (a joint venture between KamAZ and the Brazilian company Marcopolo S.A. for the production and sale of buses), and another initiator of the bill, Ildar Shamilov, heads the trade union organization of the enterprise JSC KamAZ. KamAZ has been developing electric buses for more than ten years. Their mass production was launched in 2018 at the NefAZ plant (a subsidiary of KamAZ). At the same time, a contract was signed for the supply of these vehicles to Moscow: by mid-July of this year, KamAZ had produced 1,000 electric buses. In addition, KamAZ participated in the development of the domestic electric car “Atom” (the main investors of the project are the head of the enterprise Sergey Kogogin and businessman Ruben Vardanyan). The first series of cars is scheduled for release in June 2025.

According to the Avtostat agency, as of July 1, 2023, there were more than 26,000 electric vehicles in Russia (0.06% of the total domestic vehicle fleet). Of these, 8.57 thousand were registered in the Central Federal District, 4.18 thousand in the Far East, 2.45 thousand in the Southern Federal District, 2.42 thousand in the Volga Federal District. In March 2023, the New People faction proposed exempting electric car owners across the country from transport tax by amending the Tax Code: the government should prepare a response to the amendments. Earlier, the White House introduced free travel for electric vehicles on federal toll roads: the benefit is valid until the end of 2023.

Kirill Antonov, Kazan; Ivan Tyazhlov