We’ve got bad news for those who do not live in the Eurasian Economic Union (the EAEU – Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus) and temporary enter Russia on more than one vehicle owned by one person or one organization. Now, you are to make a large deposit for all these cars, except one. The deposit will be returned to you only after you leave the country. In other words, the entry will cost such a pretty penny that it will hardly be affordable.
We’ll tell you the story at first, and then the reason for it.
One of the guides from “The Guides of St. Petersburg” group in a social network shared an unsettling story with her colleagues. Her tourists were driving camper vans from Estonia to Russia. The tourists were Brazilian, the camper vans were owned by a German company. Russian customs officials told them at the border to pay a deposit for all vans except one in the amount of customs duty, as if they were importing cars for sale inside the country. The size of the customs duty is 30% from value of a camper van. The deposit would be returned at a separate request after the person leaves Russia.
On September 4, 2018, Federal Law №289 came in force in Russia. According to its Article 193, if you:
a) are not a permanent resident of the EAEU;
b) temporarily import into Russia for personal use a vehicle registered abroad, which belongs to you or someone else (person or organization);
c) and at the same time you or this “someone else” already have a vehicle for personal use on the territory of the EAEU, and it has not been customs cleared,
then you are to pay for the imported vehicle a deposit in the amount of the customs duty, the same customs duty that you would pay if you were going to sell the vehicle in Russia.
Now, let’s explain it in simple words.
For example, your friends and you rent several cars in Finland (tractors, tanks, motorcycles) from the same rental company. The first car will enter Russia without payment of duties, the rest – with payment of deposits. The deposit is paid first, and then you get permission to enter. Leaving Russia, you send a request to the customs and it returns the deposit to you.
In case if someone entered Russia on any vehicle of the same company (without clearing it) earlier than you, you are to pay a deposit for your first vehicle too.
It is done to stop the illegal car trade in Russia, because often imported vehicles are sold and used without customs clearance.
In the above story, the travel agency in charge of the trip quickly found a bus for Brazilians, while camper vans were left on the border.