The Customs Duty on Import of Monoblocks to Russia Has Come Into Force

Since 25th January 2013 the import of monoblock PC’s into Russia will be taxed by 10 percent customs duty. The only exception will be for the monoblocks, which cost more than $ 3000.

Russia (I-Newswire) February 1, 2013 - The proposal to examine the situation from different perspectives came from lawyers, customs practices experts and government representatives.

Earlier the customs duty on the import of monoblocks was 0%. The authors of the idea of tax changing say, that the main goal of this innovation is the encouraging of foreign companies to transfer their manufacture to Russia's territory and as a consequence - support of Russian manufacturers. It's worth noting that there are not so many monoblock developers in Russia, in fact only a few companies offer this kind of hardware under their own brand, but the production of these computers is carried outside of the country, typically in China or Thailand.

Today monoblocks are really popular in different consumer's segments because of their compactness and functionality. Monoblocks look like traditional PC monitors but already have a system unit built in, which makes them very convenient for business use. Monoblocks rightly considered to be a legitimate step in evolution of PC.

Managing partner of the IFCG law company Vyacheslav Kalinin notes that monoblocks, which are subjected to customs duties are making the lion's share of the market. The premium class devices are duty free, but their cost is more than $3 thousand, therefore not many can afford them. Thus, the solution of the Eurasian Economic Commission (the body that introduced the 10% duty) may become an obstacle for small and medium businesses.

According to the head of IFCG customs practices Stepan Semiletnikov, such protectionism is a remnant of customs wars of 18-19 centuries and the Cold War of the 20th. He says that such kind of stimulation in the automotive industry already increased the car production in Russia, but the prevailing number of components are still foreign. It means that this decision might not stimulate the country's full production but can couse a simple assembling.

Meanwhile, the EEC Trade Minister Andrei Slepnev is sure that the imposition of customs duty will promote the production of PCs in Customs Union countries. "Thanks to differentiation according to the value of goods, it affects mostly the office PC, while tariffs, for example, for servers remain the same. Under the intensified fighting conditions for the export markets on the background of the global economic crisis, we must create the opportunities which will stimulate the production of high-tech products in our countries".