Stop, cars!

There will be fewer used foreign cars, but at a higher price

The automobile boom in Russia, provoked by the government, which consistently raised customs duties first on dilapidated foreign cars, and now on cars aged three to seven years, is coming to its logical conclusion. From today, it no longer makes sense to rush around the car markets of Germany, Poland or Japan, and then rush headlong in a freshly purchased car to your homeland - Russian government decree No. 357 of June 21, 2003 has come into force, which practically doubles the cost of customs clearance of the most popular foreign cars. And if officials led by Ilya Klebanov, who lobbied for the tightening of customs barriers, have yet to prove that as a result of innovations foreign investments will fall on the domestic auto industry, then ordinary motorists will have to face rising prices for used cars and a reduction in supply in the markets in the fall.

Let us remind you that according to the government decree, instead of the existing two customs duty rates for cars aged three to seven years, a whole scale of six positions is being introduced. If until now a rate of 0.85 euros per cubic centimeter had to be paid for cars with an engine capacity of less than 2.5 liters (and 1.4 euros for more powerful cars), today the same amount costs for customs clearance of minicars with an engine capacity of does not exceed one liter. Cleaning a car with a 2.5-liter engine today costs 3 thousand euros more than yesterday.

Naturally, on the eve of July 25, entire caravans of cars were heading through border checkpoints to Russia. And although the import of cars did not reach last year’s scale (according to the State Customs Committee, in the first half of 2003, 127.6 thousand passenger cars were imported, which is not even a quarter of the “import” of 2002), customs officers at the westernmost and Far Eastern borders had to work under pressure. Only the other day in Kaliningrad it was possible to eliminate a multi-kilometer traffic jam of foreign cars coming from Europe, and Vladivostok customs, for example, in the last three weeks was forced to work almost around the clock. Since the beginning of July, 5,203 Japanese cars have been imported to the capital of Primorye by sea from Japan - more than in the first six months of this year.

Now all the worries of customs officers are behind us, which cannot be said about buyers. At the famous Vladivostok car market “Green Corner”, compared to the winter months, Toyotas, Mazdas and Hondas have risen in price by an average of one and a half thousand conventional units. Sellers claim that this is not the limit: prices will rise at least until December. In Moscow, a price jump is expected no earlier than the fall. As Igor Kozhukhov, a representative of the Avtogarant company, which owns the largest car market in the capital region, explained to the correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, this is due to both the overstocking of old foreign cars and the holiday period, when sales volumes traditionally decline. According to Mr. Kozhukhov, the most noticeable effect after increasing duties will be the complete washout of inexpensive cars from the market. If after the first increase, which affected cars older than seven years, foreign cars costing 3-5 thousand dollars practically disappeared, now the bulk of imported cars will cost more than 10 thousand dollars. In addition, if previously buyers were offered used cars without mileage Russian Federation, straight from Europe, then from now on the average Russian can only count on buying a car that is familiar first-hand with Russian roads, climate and service.

As a result, potential buyers of used foreign cars in the capital are not behaving as calmly as the government would like. On thematic websites, car enthusiasts are discussing the possibilities of organizing a protest in Moscow following the example of the Far East, and are also looking for ways to bypass high barriers. In order not to pay for customs clearance of a car an amount that sometimes exceeds its cost, many motorists intend to continue driving cars with foreign (for example, Belarusian) license plates by proxy, risking losing their car every day. If they are detained, the car must be placed in a customs parking lot, from where it can be returned only after paying a fine of almost 100% of the customs value. True, as some car enthusiasts believe, it is traditionally easier and cheaper to negotiate with Moscow traffic cops than with customs officers.

Dmitry CHERNOV, Alexander GUDKOV