The Ministry of Digital Development intends to introduce recycling fees on foreign IT equipment

The Ministry of Digital Development proposes to introduce a recycling fee on foreign IT equipment that has analogues in Russia, and use the funds received to support Russian manufacturers. This was announced by the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, at the Infotech forum in Tyumen.

“There is such a measure, it applies to vehicles, it’s called recycling collection. This is a measure that allows us to increase the cost of foreign solutions for those positions for which there are Russian analogues <...> We will collect it from those who import foreign equipment. And this will go to support Russian production,” leads his words to Interfax.

The minister noted that it will not be possible to reduce prices for Russian IT equipment now due to increased logistics costs, but “we can raise prices for foreign ones.” He also added that the Ministry of Digital Development is against restrictions on parallel imports.

The recycling fee is a one-time payment, it is charged for future disposal of equipment from September 2012. It is paid for each car, its size is determined based on the base rate (20,000–172,500 rubles depending on the type of car), multiplied by a coefficient that differs for different types of equipment with different weight, age and engine size. This summer, the recycling fee was indexed, the collection rate for passenger cars will be increased on average by 1.7–3.7 times depending on engine size, for LCVs – by 2.5–3.4 times, for trucks – by 1.7 times.

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%).