Import is not there now: from May 1, premium used cars may rise in price by 25%
From May 1, used premium cars may rise in price by a quarter. The new recycling calculation system for cars imported from the EAEU will increase their cost by an average of 25%. Thus, the authorities expect to close the loophole for cheap customs clearance of cars in Belarus or Kyrgyzstan. The resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on changing the formula for calculating waste collection, if adopted, will enter into force on May 1. As a result, the price of three– to five-year-old premium cars may increase by an average of 1 million rubles, which will force gray dealers to leave the market, experts believe.
How to calculate the recycling fee
The new procedure for calculating scrap collection for cars from the EAEU countries will take into account the costs of buyers, which will make gray customs clearance schemes in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan unprofitable. This follows from the draft decree of the Government of the Russian Federation prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Izvestia has reviewed the document). The cheaper a car is purchased in a state of the Eurasian Economic Union, the more you will have to pay extra for recycling when registering it in Russia, which negates the existing benefits of customs clearance in the EAEU countries.
"When a car is imported into Russia, the procedure for calculating payments will become dramatically more complicated," Roman Trofimov, an expert in car selection, told Izvestia. — The owner will have to prove the price of the car when buying abroad.
The authorities will require to submit not only the purchase and sale agreement, but also other payment documents, including invoices, specifications, passenger customs declarations, shipping (packing) sheets, waybills, accounting and tax records, money transfer reports, certificate of origin, etc. other receipts, follows from the draft government decree. The data obtained should be checked against the list of prices for cars, which the Ministry of Industry and Trade publishes quarterly. And if the costs do not match, then the owner will be obligated to compensate for the difference.
In the absence of documents, the amount of recycling will be the maximum and will exceed 60% of the average cost of the car, follows from the new formula for calculating this payment. On average, the price of imported used cars in the premium segment may increase by 20-25%, dealers believe.
— A three-year-old BMW car, which was previously imported from Belarus for about 4 million rubles, will rise in price by 1 million, — said Roman Trofimov.
This procedure should come into force as early as May 1, 2025, which will actually lead to the termination of the work of gray distillers from Kyrgyzstan and Belarus.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
From May, the recycling will be calculated according to the formula: US = US ed + (Rs – Nw) x 0.5;
where US ed is the uniform recycling rate, Rs is the average cost of a vehicle from the list of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Sz is the amount of the owner's expenses for the purchase of a car.
Gray car customs clearance schemes
Gray car supply chains gained popularity in 2023 due to differences in the procedure for calculating customs duties in the EAEU countries.
As the press service of the Federal Customs Service told Izvestia, despite the fact that customs duties are uniform for the EAEU members, there are differences in the calculation of the total customs payment due to VAT, the collection of which is not unified. Therefore, customs clearance prices in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan are slightly different.
The first attempt to equalize customs duties through recycling was made on April 1, 2024, Artem Samorodov, an expert on the automotive business at AvtoSpecCenter, told Izvestia. Then the authorities adjusted the difference in VAT and excise taxes. It seemed that the gray schemes were over, but suppliers found loopholes in Kyrgyzstan and Belarus.
In Belarus, there is an annual 50% discount on cars for personal use of privileged categories of citizens. Sellers pay them from $1 thousand to $3.5 thousand for assistance in registration of cars for clients from the Russian Federation, Roman Trofimov told Izvestia.
For example, the EAEU customs rate for a car aged three to five years with an engine capacity of up to 2 liters is €2.7 per 1 cubic cm. For a three–year—old car, you have to pay customs € 5,400, and when applying for a beneficiary — only € 2,700, the expert noted.
In Kyrgyzstan, the scheme works differently. Cars are mostly cleared there not according to the passenger customs declaration, as elsewhere, but according to a new document — the customs receipt order (TPO), which indicates low prices for imported cars. For example, a BMW for $65 thousand fits into the TPO at a price of $ 20 thousand. This document is authentic and is recognized by the Kyrgyz authorities, the source told Izvestia. As a result, customs payments in the republic are two to three times lower than in Russia. It is not surprising that these schemes are popular, he noted.
To further reduce the price of imported cars, customs clearance is not carried out at a commercial tariff, but for individuals. The base rate of recycling in the Russian Federation is 20 thousand rubles. For comparison, when applying to legal entities, this payment increases to 1,174 million rubles (with a motor up to 2 liters) and 2,839 million rubles (with a motor up to 3 liters).
Thus, for complex manipulation of the price of imported premium cars from Germany could be reduced by about a quarter compared with imported into Russia in compliance with all procedures.
In 2024, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan were the leaders among the countries (second and third place), where gray car supplies come from. Through them, new premium cars priced at 6-8 million rubles or used three-year-olds priced at 4-6 million rubles enter the domestic market.
How much can car prices rise?
Unscrupulous distillers have been coming up with ways to circumvent regulatory requirements over the past year. For example, cars were imported through private individuals who pay a much lower recycling fee than legal entities, Anastasia Baibarosha, head of the department for work with passenger vehicle representatives at Alfa-Leasing Group, told Izvestia.
"A common scheme was to underestimate the customs value of vehicles in the customs receipt order of the EAEU country, which cannot be verified using the price directories of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia," she noted.
According to the Fresh automotive marketplace, in Kyrgyzstan, the official price of a car was artificially lowered to about a quarter of the actual market value. In addition, the VAT rate in the republic was set at 12%, while in Russia this figure reached 20%.
"If a Russian bought such a car and brought it to the Russian Federation, he did not have to pay additional excise taxes and VAT, which inevitably arose during direct import," the company's press service told Izvestia. — As a result, the savings on the price of the car could reach about 25%.
For example, for the popular Geely Monjaro, the difference in customs duties in Russia and Kyrgyzstan is about 700 thousand rubles, for owners of Zeekr 001 and Li L7 — 1.5 million, they added.
"The import of such vehicles has had a negative impact on official suppliers of new cars and on end customers," Anastasia Baibarosha said. — The latter are faced with the requirement of the Federal Customs Service to pay hundreds of thousands of rubles extra for cars that were imported into Russia with a significant underestimation of the value in invoices (payment document) to the territory of the EAEU.
Dealers faced an outflow of traffic to car dealerships, as premium cars imported in this way were cheaper than those from official suppliers, she noted.
"Because of the gray schemes, the market is filled with low—priced cars, which misleads customers," Sergey Melyukh, director of Avilon Electro, told Izvestia. — The market share of white suppliers in this segment was significantly lower. Due to gray schemes, the image of popular Chinese brands (Zeekr, Avatr, LiXiang, Lotus, etc.) suffers. The closure of such car supply channels from Kyrgyzstan and Belarus will lead to higher prices.
In light of the new rules, the market expects a noticeable increase in prices for cars previously imported under the Kyrgyz scheme, the press service of Fresh said. The average cost of such machines ranged from 3.5–4 million rubles. After the cancellation of the benefits of this scheme, the final price for imported cars may increase by 20-25%.
Nevertheless, according to the company, this is unlikely to stop the import of premium cars, but it will adjust to Chinese brands. Local production of Chinese cars in Russia is expected to expand soon, which will reduce the attractiveness of parallel and gray supplies, they added.
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