MOSCOW, July 06. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Finance Ministry says during 2015-2017 it may collect 60 billion roubles (about 1.7 billion dollars) from duties on foreign purchases Russians make online.
A draft budget version for 2015-2017, which Itar-Tass has, reads “additional revenues from import customs duties, payable from the Internet purchases” within next three years will make 20 billion roubles annually.
In late June the Russian Foreign Ministry drafted the government’s order on limiting duty-free import of private purchases, mailed by a carrier or an international mail service, where the price is 150 euro and the weight is ten kilograms. Above that limit a 30-percent duty will be due. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in May signed an order, under which the government has the authority to changes parameters of duty-free import of personal purchases.
In the framework of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, the options for duty-free goods delivered by mail are regulated by an inter-governmental agreement. No customs duties are payable for goods delivered within a month, where the price is under 1,000 euro and the aggregated weight per a month is 31 kilograms. Otherwise, a purchaser has to pay a customs duty of 30% from the customs pricing of the goods. The participating countries may change the regulations, the agreement reads.
Experts of iKS-Consulting say lower limit for duty-free import of goods from 1,000 to 150 euro a month would not affect the market of e-trade in Russia. Russians most frequently buy online air tickets, accommodation and digital goods. Goods which require physical delivery take about ten percent of the e-trade, the experts say.
iKS-Consulting forecasts the turnover of e-trade in Russia will grow in 2014 by 15% to 10.9 trillion roubles (about 318 billion dollars). The total value of purchases made in Russian and foreign Internet shops in 2014 will exceed 1.4 trillion roubles (about 40 billion dollars), which is about 30% more year-on-year. Here, the share of operations inside Russia’s retail e-trade is about two-thirds of the total turnover - 640 billion roubles (about 18.6 billion dollars) in 2013 and 840 billion roubles (24.5 billion dollars) in 2014.