The threshold for duty free e-commerce can be lifted. Or not?
Another bout of activity in the field of streamlining foreign online purchases occurred suddenly - on November 23, a working group of the EEC Council (Eurasian Economic Commission) began discussing a new project to reduce the threshold for duty-free online commerce from the current 1000 to 150 euros per month.
What is proposed
According to the Vedomosti publication, the project involves two major innovations: the amount of duty-free imports is limited to 150 euros, the weight of a non-taxable parcel is 10 kg per month. However, even for such a parcel, it is proposed to introduce a customs fee of 25 euros. If the purchase amount and weight are exceeded, in addition to the collection, you will also have to pay a fee, which, as before, is 30% of the excess amount (but not less than 4 euros per kg).
It should be noted that although Vedomosti had a copy of the draft at its disposal, Kommersant reported before the meeting about another version of the document. According to it, all packages are divided into three groups:
- Parcels with the cost of goods up to 22 euros and weighing less than 1 kg. Such parcels are completely exempted from customs payments.
- Parcels with the cost of goods from 22 to 150 euros and weighing from 1 to 10 kg. The fee for such packages is 15 euros.
- Parcels with goods worth more than 150 euros and weighing more than 10 kg. In this case, you will have to pay both a fee of 15 euros and a customs duty of 30% of the excess amount (but not less than 4 euros per kg).
According to the same Kommersant, there is a second version of the project. For any parcel that fits into 150 euros at the cost of goods and 10 kg by weight, a fee of 10 euros will be charged. If exceeded - the same fee plus a fee of 30% of the amount exceeded (but not less than 4 euros per kg).
In general, there are many versions and possible options for limitations, and which of them was discussed precisely is still unknown. But be that as it may, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, "the proposals of the Eurasian Economic Commission (JAC) to lower the threshold of duty-free e-commerce from 1000 euros to 150 euros did not find support from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union."
And it’s clear why.
Does the postal administration need this?
Of course not.
Kazakhs have invested more than $ 10 billion over the past three years in the development of Kazpost infrastructure and service. “Russian Post” does not provide its data, but qualitative changes are evident. Moreover, the domestic operator for the first time in recent decades has become profitable from a subsidized one (1.2 billion rubles in 2014), the volume of parcels in the first 9 months of 2015 increased to 80 million only international shipments.
It is logical to assume that both Kazpost and Russian Post do not want to lose growth rates and volumes of processed parcels. But what will happen if a customs duty is introduced, even if it costs 15 euros?
And here is what. Over 60% of the total online trading flow comes from China. The average bill is about 20 euros. That is, all buyers on AliExpress, JD or Taobao are invited to pay the same amount for the purchased goods. Definitely, all of them are reoriented to local markets, and the flow of orders through the mail will decrease, or even completely stall.
It is clear that there is a frantic search for sources of revenue for the budget, and maybe even the “Russian Post” could have “pushed” the initiators of the new restrictions, but the Kazakhs certainly won’t do this, as was the case in the previous discussions. So, the opportunity to import duty-free for 1000 euros, albeit through Kazakhstan, will remain.
How to charge fees
Suppose we introduced these same duties. Suppose, at first, the flow of packages will not decrease. But the question is how to levy these duties? There is no mechanism, and where it can come from to handle 100 million shipments a year is not clear. A striking example of such creativity is the Plato truck collection system, which is about to threaten a social explosion.
According to Fedor Virin, a partner at Data Insight, in an interview with BFM.RU: “... this flow of [foreign parcels] very weakly competes with domestic trade, because, in principle, what is bought in Russia is essentially absent. At the same time, I have never seen a sane, intelligible algorithm for collecting these duties from the population receiving parcels in any bill on this subject. There is no such mechanism today - small retail payments, something that our tax department does not know how to do at all ... "
What to expect
Immediately after the meeting of the commission, according to RBC, “... the representative of Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who participated in the meeting of the council from the Russian side, told Interfax that the EEC council postponed the discussion of new customs duties and fees to parcels from foreign online stores. According to her, the issue can be considered at the next meeting of the EEC Council, which will be held approximately on December 2. " The key here is "maybe."
But the head of the Ministry of Communications, Nikolai Nikiforov, in an interview with RIA Novosti shared his opinion that “new duties on parcels from abroad should be introduced in stages and without“ shock therapy ”for citizens.” And we would add - for the cross-border online trading market as a whole, too. Yes, and they would think about Russian Post.
Temporary is a rollback from hard positions or not - time will tell. So do not be nervous and continue shopping further.
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