Recycling fee for cars over 160 hp imported by individuals to be increased; additional revenues to total 40-60 bln rubles - Russian industry and trade minister

MOSCOW. July 2 (Interfax) - The source of additional financing for demand support programs in Russia's automotive industry will be an increase in the recycling fee for certain categories of vehicles imported by individuals for personal use, and this measure is expected to bring in an additional 40-60 billion rubles in 2025, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov told reporters on Wednesday.

"We reported to the [Russian] prime minister during a strategic session, which focused on the auto industry, about the need to extend the recycling fee to cars imported by individuals in specific segments, namely vehicles with 160 horsepower or more. We will apply the recycling fee to them as well," Alikhanov said. This will "generate additional revenue sources that will be directed, among other things, towards demand support measures," he said.

Currently, individuals who independently import a foreign car into Russia for personal use while complying with tax and customs laws pay the recycling fee at a reduced rate - 3,400 rubles for new cars up to three years old and 5,200 rubles for used vehicles more than three years old.

A decision on the partial increase of the recycling fee for individuals is expected soon, Alikhanov said.

"As for the amounts [of additional revenue], we're talking about tens of billions of rubles. Our estimates vary, from 40 to 60 billion rubles of additional revenue this year," he said.

It is planned that these funds, in the amount that will appear on the balance of the Industry and Trade Ministry, will be directed towards the additional financing of preferential programs in the automotive industry.

When asked whether additional funds would be required for these programs, Alikhanov said: "We need to provide additional funding. We're definitely going to need it because we are already close to exhausting the resources for these support measures."

In general, there are no plans to further index the recycling fee in the automotive sector beyond the five-year rate increase schedule already approved in 2024, he said. "It [the indexation] has been carried out sufficiently and was already laid out for the next five years, so there's no point in changing it," he said.