The introduction of a recycling fee will not affect their cost yet

The haste to introduce a recycling fee in Ukraine forces the authorities to change the rules of the game on the fly. Only on Friday, two days before the law came into force, car importers received an explanation from the State Traffic Inspectorate that the fee would not apply to cars imported before September 1. In addition, the Ministry of Environment proposed to change the principles for calculating the amount of the fee. And domestic producers, in whose interests the law was adopted, are not ready to work in the new conditions.

There are enough stocks of cars in importers' warehouses to sell them at the old price for another month and a half
Photo: Reuters

In Ukraine, there will be no recycling fee for cars imported into the country before September 1, Alexander Timofeev, general director of ABT Bavaria (the official importer of BMW, MINI), told Kommersant. According to him, the company received the corresponding explanation from the traffic police last Friday. “The law has ambiguous wording about the moment at which the importer is charged a fee. The traffic police notification clearly states that we can sell cars from the warehouse at old prices,” says Sergei Borovik, marketing director of the AIS group.

Alexander Timofeev says that his company did not have time to fill the warehouses: “We cleared customs mainly gasoline cars, which in the spring were unprofitable due to the introduction of special duties when importing cars. Now we had to spend 20 million UAH of working capital in order not to fall under another tax. These reserves may be enough for 1.5 months, but we hope for the repeal of the law, since the WTO opposes it. Under other circumstances, cars will be imported at new prices." According to Sergei Borovik, orders are formed three months in advance, so importers were unlikely to be able to stock up for a longer period, taking into account the planned summer shutdown of European conveyors. The sales department of the company "Kiy Auto Holding" (Renault dealer) reported yesterday that the most popular models Logan, Sandero, Fluence and Megane are practically out of stock, and the next deliveries will be in October and November. There are still about 4-10 cars for other models.

The Automobile Recycling Law was passed in July this year to help domestic manufacturers, who are exempt from the fee provided they meet certain legal requirements. It came into force on September 1. But it is unclear whether domestic companies will be able to take advantage of the law. “We have not yet completed the work to meet all the criteria,” said Sergei Borovik. According to him, the cost of cars produced by the Kremenchug Automobile Assembly Plant will not change, since there is a certain reserve, the volume of which Mr. Borovik refused to specify. Let us recall that in early August, some manufacturers announced that they did not have time to fulfill the requirements of the law before September 1 and would be forced to pay a recycling fee (see Kommersant of August 8 ).

While market participants are getting used to the new working conditions, the authorities are trying to remove other rough edges of the law. Thus, on August 5, President Viktor Yanukovych instructed Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to improve the law - in particular, to prepare and submit to parliament norms that meet the requirements of the World Trade Organization, as well as supplement it with norms that protect the economic interests and rights of vehicle owners who transfer them to recycling. In mid-August, the Ministry of Ecology published a bill that provides for the abolition of adjustment coefficients to the basic tax rates for vehicle recycling: 5.5 thousand UAH for passenger cars and 11 thousand UAH for buses, trucks and utility vehicles or special equipment. Let us remind you that today, taking into account these coefficients, the cost of collection is 4.73-60.5 thousand UAH, depending on the type, year of manufacture and weight of the vehicle.

Companies still find it difficult to predict how the new rules of the game will affect the car market. “Customers may prefer a budget car of domestic production rather than a foreign car due to the increase in cost. But at the same time, cars with medium and large engine displacement will rise in price, but only to a level that will not scare the client,” says the head of the passenger car sales department Volkswagen of the Porsche Ukraine company Sergey Nosenko.

Andrey Ledenev

Newspaper "Kommersant Ukraine" No. 134 dated 02.09.2013, page 1

Authors:

Andrey Ledenev

Themes:

Automotive industry

Cars are counted in autumn