MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia expects its revenues from car scrappage fees to fall well short of budgeted levels this year, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Tuesday, which could lead some projects being abandoned.
With Chinese automakers now dominating Russia’s car market, Moscow had planned to effectively raise taxes on imported cars this year by doubling scrappage fees for all producers while increasing state support for domestically made vehicles.
Domestic manufacturers and car importers alike are required to pay a scrappage fee in Russia to cover the future costs the state incurs for managing the scrapping process.
Russia had planned to almost double its revenues from car recycling in 2025 to 2.01 trillion roubles ($24.77 billion) from 1.08 trillion roubles, but those expectations have been dashed in part by declining car sales.
“This year, our scrappage receipts are differing noticeably from what was in the budget,” Siluanov told reporters, without specifying the size of the drop.
Projects set to be implemented using funds from scrappage fees could be cut if the necessary revenues do not materialise, he added.
According to data from Russia’s industry and trade ministry, sales of new cars in January-April were down 27% year on year to 404,016 units.
($1 = 81.1455 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Gleb Bryanski; additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Jan Harvey)
