| Aircraft manufacturers criticize the idea of reducing duties Aircraft manufacturers yesterday began to criticize in a rather harsh manner the idea of revising import duties on the import of aircraft. General Director of the leasing company Ilyushin-Finance Co (IFK) Alexander Rubtsov said that “the abolition of duties on the import of foreign aircraft will kill the Russian aviation industry.” He harshly criticized the idea of reducing import duties on imported aircraft, the analogues of which are not produced in Russia. As is known, on July 6, Russian Minister of Transport Igor Levitin announced that the government of the country had instructed his department to develop proposals for an appropriate revision of duty rates (see Vremya Novostei, July 7, 2004) . Yesterday, Mr. Rubtsov, whose company finances the production of long-range Il-96-300 airliners at the Voronezh Aviation Plant, announced the conclusion of the first contract for the export of these aircraft and took this opportunity to speak out against the government initiative.
IFC signed a contract for the supply of two IL-96-300 airliners last Friday with the Cuban state company Aviaimport. The aircraft are being purchased for Cuba's national airline, Cubana de Aviacion. To assemble the vehicles, they use fuselages that have been “frozen” at the Voronezh plant since the early 90s. Therefore, the liners will be ready very quickly. The first of them is planned to be delivered to the customer in March-April, and the second in May 2005. IFC will play the role of an exporter, controlling the assembly of aircraft at the plant and conducting financial settlements with the buyer.
Mr. Rubtsov did not name the exact amount of the transaction, he only said that it was “more than $100 million.” But he said that under the terms of the contact, the Cuban side pays only 15% of the cost of the cars at a time. The remaining 85% should be covered by loans from Russian banks obtained under Russian government guarantees (the Cubans undertake to gradually repay these loans after the aircraft are delivered and they begin to operate).
The concept of state financial guarantee support for the export of domestic industrial products was approved by the previous Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in October 2003. The issue of guarantees for “Cuban” aircraft was raised at a meeting of senior officials in Voronezh on June 24, 2004, and the new Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov then instructed the relevant departments to “prepare proposals.” However, the Russian Federation has not yet issued sovereign guarantees for this deal, and people closely familiar with the subject do not dare to predict when this will happen (if it happens).
Without a government decree on guarantees, the first export contract of the Voronezh Aircraft Plant since the liquidation of Soviet power (and at the same time the first export transaction of IFC) is little more than a protocol of intent. According to Alexander Rubtsov, the free admission of Western aircraft to the Russian market will make the issue of promoting domestic aircraft in the opposite direction irrelevant, since there will be nothing to promote: the production of aircraft in our country will simply stop.
The exact opposite opinion was expressed yesterday by the head of the Transaero airline, whose fleet has historically been formed almost exclusively from foreign aircraft. Noting that the rise in world prices for aviation fuel continues and a change in this trend is not yet visible, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Transaero Alexander Pleshakov predicted that the further, “the worse Russian old-generation aircraft (whose fuel efficiency is inferior to their foreign counterparts) will feel. - Ed. )". Mr. Pleshakov does not see a tragedy in the re-equipment of Russian companies with foreign aircraft. In his opinion, exemption from high import duties on aircraft is simply “ensuring equal conditions for competition with foreign colleagues.” Mikhail KUKUSHKIN |
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