MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. The share of Russian online retailers market by 2018 should rise to 80% from 71%, while revenues from cross-border trade - increase from 80 mln rubles ($1.23 mln) to 60 bln rubles ($925.9 mln), Kommersant wrote on Tuesday, citing the draft "road map" for the development of e-commerce in Russia.
The project was presented last week at a meeting in the Federation Council with representatives of the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Economic Development, Industry and Trade Ministry, the Federal Tax Service, Federal Customs service and other agencies.
A key focus of the "road map" is to adjust operating environment between Russian and foreign companies. It includes transition of foreign online stores on the tax account, for which by November 1 the Finance Ministry and the Federal Tax Service will be required to prepare the appropriate amendments to the Tax Code, and the Central Bank needs to issue an order to develop a cash flow accounting system for cross-border transactions. In addition, by October 1, the Federal Tax Service is required to create a remote taxpayer office of the.
A part of the "road map" is dedicated to legalization of distance sales of drugs and alcohol. Officially, sales of alcohol through the Internet are prohibited, but at the same time alcoholic beverages "confidently hold the first place in terms of growth of sales (29% per year) among all other types of products," which leads to the growth of the or grey turnover. In order to remove bans on distance sales of these categories, the government will introduce appropriate amendments to the law: for medical supplies - by 1 December, for alcohol - by April 1, 2017. As a result, according to experts' estimates, the volume of online food sales should rise from 0.11% to 2%, jewelry - from 2.8% to 6%, and the legal sale of medical supplies and alcohol - 8% and 4%, respectively.
The document is of a preliminary nature, according to Head of the sub-working group and President of Russian Association of Internet Trade Companies Alexey Fedorov. "We are still collecting feedback and comments from interested agencies, but essentially we have not yet received any objections," Fedorov said.
According to Data Insight estimates, the volume of the Russian online retail market in 2015 amounted to 650 bln rubles ($10.03 bln), increasing by 16% in rubles and dropping by 28% in dollars, cross-border segment - 160 bln rubles ($2.47 bln), growth of 88% in rubles and 28% in dollars.
As TASS reported earlier, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is going to prepare a strategy for the development of e-commerce in Russia before 2016. A special project team will be set up for development of the strategy, comprising representatives of government authorities, e-commerce companies, logistics and payment operators and industry associations, the Ministry said.