Russian foreign trade turnover up 3% in H1 compared with pre-Covid 1029 figures - acting FCS chief

MOSCOW. July 19 (Interfax) - Russia's foreign trade turnover in H1 2023 increased by 3% compared to the pre-crisis H1 2019, with good growth coming for imports, said Ruslan Davydov, acting head of the Federal Customs Service, at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

"In H1 of this year we have a 3% increase in trade turnover compared to pre-crisis 2019. Imports are growing at a very good pace, this is reflected in the structure of customs payments - 77% in the structure of customs payments for H1 are precisely import payments," he said.

As reported, according to the Federal Customs Service, Russia's foreign trade turnover amounted to $320.8 billion in January-June 2019.

"We managed to fulfill the plan [on transfers to the budget] in Q2, and in May-June we are exceeding the target for collections into the federal budget," Davydov also said.

As reported, the FCS in January-June 2023 transferred 2.866 trillion to the federal budget, which is 17.8% less than in the same period of 2022 (3.488 trillion). At the same time, in June 2023, customs authorities transferred 541.7 billion to the federal budget, which is 39.5% more than a year earlier (388.3 billion rubles).

Davydov also said that "we can state that the comprehensive turnaround of our trade to the East and the South has already taken place".

"What has been done by customs authorities to ensure that border crossing points are truly a workable part of transportation corridors and not narrow bottlenecks, as was sometimes the case? As I have already said, five checkpoints have been switched to round-the-clock operation. Staffing levels have been increased by 950 people. And we plan to transfer another 200 to the Far East direction in the near future," he said.