The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to exempt a number of exporters from exchange rate duties

The government is considering the possibility of exempting a number of Russian exporters from paying a new export duty tied to the ruble exchange rate, said First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Vasily Osmakov during an extended meeting of the Expert Council on the Development of Foreign Economic Activity under the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy at the forum “ Made in Russia”.

“This is a resolution [правительства №1538], of course, not a dogma. We are already working on possible withdrawals in a number of areas. In fact, there were quite a lot of seizures right away,” said the first deputy minister.

But Osmakov warned that in order to be excluded from the list of customs duty payers, the company would have to provide “extremely tough arguments.” According to him, the Ministry of Economic Development has already developed a special form where companies wishing to exempt themselves from the duty will have to provide the necessary information about their activities.

Osmakov emphasized that the selection will be very strict. “I’ll say right away that it’s not easy. Either you must prove that you have a high share of the foreign currency component in the cost of production, or convincingly show that exports are being killed and the budget will not receive anything,” explained the first deputy minister. He added that at meetings of the government subcommittee on customs, tariff and non-tariff regulation, “regular work” will be carried out to consider such applications.

On the sidelines of the forum, Osmakov told reporters that the Ministry of Industry and Trade had also compiled a list of industrial goods that it considered appropriate to remove from the list of those subject to export duty. These proposals have already been sent for consideration to the relevant subcommittee, the meeting of which may take place this or next week.

In particular, the department proposed to exclude from the list some products of the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. “This is, indeed, such a scattering of small codes that, in our opinion, did not quite correctly fall into this package that was originally,” the first deputy minister clarified. According to him, even when the decision was made to introduce an exchange rate duty, the authorities expected that they would adjust the list of goods. At the same time, Osmakov clarified that the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s proposals for exclusions from the list do not affect the goods of the largest exporters from the metallurgy, fertilizer production and others.

New export duties linked to the ruble exchange rate went into effect in Russia on October 1, and will last until the end of 2024. The duty is 4% of the customs value of the goods with an average exchange rate of 80 to 85 rubles/$, 4.5% – with rate 85-90 rub./$, 5.5% – at rate 90-95 rub./$. The maximum rate – 7% – will be set for exporters at an exchange rate of more than 95 rubles/$. For fertilizers, the duty will be up to 10% depending on the ruble exchange rate.

Every month this fee will bring the budget about 50 billion rubles, and in general in 2023-2024. the volume of revenues will be 755.3 billion rubles, Interfax wrote with reference to the explanatory note to the draft federal budget for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026.