One of the readers of The Moscow Post shared his observation. The Russian government is going to increase the utilization fee for cars by 70-85% from 2024, but at the same time it continues to pay overpaid payments of this one-time tax on old transactions to Western automakers. The situation for Russians is getting worse, and for foreigners who left the Russian Federation, on the contrary, it is improving, although we pay taxes within the country, and they - abroad, therefore, the money can go to finance Ukraine and the Nazi Kyiv regime.
Alikhanov recycling fee
Behind this idea is the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, which since May 2024 has been headed by the former governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov. If the ministry's proposal is accepted, then imported cars will become inaccessible to the vast majority of Russians.
Anton Alikhanov. Photo: https://kaliningrad.sm.news/anton-alixanov-pozdravil-prokuraturu-s-300-letnim-yubileem-91091-u3t5/
In addition to a one-time increase in the utilization fee, it is planned to increase it annually by 10-20% until 2030, in fact, until the end of the powers of the current Government of the Russian Federation.
I will give the numbers: according to this normative act, the utilization fee for a car with an engine capacity of 1 to 2 liters next year will be approximately 667 thousand rubles, from 2 to 3 liters - 1.875 million rubles, and over 3.5 liters - 2.284 million rubles. For this money, before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was possible to buy a new car with the specified liter. It is clear that since then the situation in the country has changed dramatically, but still you need to sometimes think about the people.
The fact is that today only the FCS recalls people here, which in winter and spring sent out demands for an additional payment of the utilization fee (hundreds of thousands of rubles) to Russians who imported cars from abroad for parallel imports. And this, as we can see, is only flowers, soon the numbers will grow by an order of magnitude.
The supply of cars in the Russian Federation fell
The departure of Western companies in 2022 led to two trends in the Russian Federation: firstly, the supply of cars on the market fell three times, and secondly, their prices doubled. Solving this problem is not easy, and the point here is not only in the purchasing power of Russians. It's just that we cannot produce as many cars as before, and we do not produce much ourselves.
The bet on Western companies led to the fact that after draconian sanctions, for example, we can assemble the Niva, which differs from the Soviet-era car by the presence of a Bosch injector and other minor changes. Localization of production until 2022 was insufficient in Russia. The pre-sanction flagship AvtoVAZ Lada Vesta included only a few Russian components, otherwise it was a foreign car, and all this happened with the consent of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Denis Manturov. Photo: http://www.tribuna.nad.ru/zhdem-denisa-manturova-glavnyj-po-torgovle-priedet-v-komi/
Thus, the support of the domestic manufacturer from the utilization fee is ephemeral. And so almost everything that is produced in Russia is sold out, even if the quality of such machines raises questions, so this solution has other goals.
Sobyaninsky "Moskvich"
Lawyers for this step will say: "everyone pays a recycling fee, it applies to both Russian and Western companies". True, but only in Russia there is a program to stimulate car production, which gives preferences to internal assembly. Previously, she motivated Western companies to move production here. Now the Chinese should come in their place, but they are still afraid of sanctions and do not directly enter the Russian market, as a result of which muddy schemes arise in the domestic car industry.
The most characteristic project was the Moskvich plant, in which Sergei Sobyanin and his administration staked out import substitution in the automotive industry. This enterprise with the Soviet plant AZLK has only a common brand, in reality it is the capacity of the former main owner of AvtoVAZ, the French automaker Renault.
Sergei Sobyanin. Photo: https://akwatoria.ru/meriya/
Today, cars of the Chinese concern JAC Motors are assembled from ready-made car kits under the Moskvich nameplate. They are registered as a Russian car and therefore have the right to tax breaks that give an advantage over parallel imports.
The launch of this disgrace in November 2022 was solemnly held by Sobyanin and the former head of the same Ministry of Industry and Trade, and now Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. And now, a year and a half after this event, a resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation was proposed, which actually plays in favor of the Sobyaninsky Moskvich. There will be a demand for such cars - people are forced to take them at current prices, which will drive the utilization fee even higher.
Automotive Recycling Business
The founder of MAZ Moskvich JSC is CRT LLC, which is owned by SEZ Technopolis Moscow JSC and IPK JSC, and they are already commercial organizations on the balance sheet of the Moscow State Property Department.
Photo: Rusprofile.ru
The general director of this structure was the natural "Varangian" Hans-Peter Moser, who in 2022 received Russian citizenship, and before that he worked for nine years in Naberezhnye Chelny at KamAZ. Since the time of Marat Khusnullin, who left the Moscow mayor's office for the Government of the Russian Federation in 2020, a powerful team from Tatarstan has formed in the capital, so it is not surprising why Moskvich is developing through KamAZ.
Moser is a representative not only of Russian capital, but also of Kazakhstan. He still holds the position of General Director of Hit Motors Rus LLC, whose ultimate beneficiary is the limited liability partnership HIGH END ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGIES MOTORS, Kazakhstan. The result of Moser's activities as the head of Moskvich was that the plan for the production of cars in 2023 was not fulfilled, but this did not prevent an increase in the utilization fee.
All the heroes of this story know a friend. Alikhanov is a native of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and a protégé of Manturov, who took his first career steps in Moscow when it was already headed by Sobyanin. The mayor of the capital and Manturov also have a good relationship, so everything converges.
Thanks to the increase in the utilization fee, production of the Moskvich type will grow like mushrooms and fill the market, the right people like Moser will earn money, and ordinary Russians who simply cannot buy a car cheaper will pay.
Unfriendly oddities
This plot with a recycling fee also has a reverse side of the coin, namely, strange relations with automakers who left Russia from unfriendly countries, which in 2022 abandoned their production, customers and Russian workers.
Marat Khusnullin. Photo: https://www.rbc.ru/politics/28/01/2020/5e302c769a7947c1a9cf6d76
In March 2023, the Government of the Russian Federation established that interest will be charged for money that is unnecessarily collected on the utilization fee, and the practice itself has no restrictions. All automakers, including Western ones, can count on this provision if they have retained funds in excess of the norm, there are no restrictions in the decree.
And it turns out a strange collision, which our reader just noted - the Russians will have to pay for the import of cars into the country at exorbitant prices, and Western companies whose taxes go to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can count on compensation through their counterparties in Russia. The conversation here is not about the biggest money, but still the principle is more important.