Integrated Russian manufacturer wants higher taxes levied on foreign-built airliners
Russia's United Aircraft (OAK) is lobbying the government to extend the protection of domestic aircraft manufacturers by raising taxes on older, secondhand foreign-produced aircraft. However, the move could result in the existing import tariffs on younger Western airliners being lifted.
OAK, which was formed last year to integrate large parts of the country's aerospace design and manufacturing industry, has proposed that Western-built types over 10 years old be subject to 30% customs duties, up from the current 20%. Should the draft proposal be approved, Russian airlines leasing such aircraft would have to pay an import tax rate of more than 55%, including 18% value added tax.
Transport minister Igor Levitin says his ministry, and those for industry and economic development, have in principle endorsed the proposal and government officials are working out an implementation mechanism.
He also says that lifting customs duties on foreign types less than 10 years old, and for which there are no domestically-produced equivalents, would be a sensible decision. But the government has not yet drawn up a firm schedule for the move, which Levitin says would be conducted over seven years following Russia's entry into the World Trade Organisation.
Russian carriers with an urgent need to renew their fleets have backed such a measure, with Aeroflot saying that "in the current situation, there is no domestic production to protect".
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has decided to replace the Antonov organisation with a wider-ranging and tighter structure.
Speaking to industry figures in Kiev, vice-premier Andrei Klyuev said the Ukrainian cabinet would next month issue a decree endorsing the creation of a state-controlled aircraft company. The plan also envisages dismantling the national aircraft development consortium established last year with the Antonov design bureau at its core.
The country's industrial policy ministry has previously admitted that Antonov, in its present shape, lacks a unified leadership and is unable to pursue a co-ordinated production policy. Klyuev says the planned holding structure, alongside five constituents of Antonov, will incorporate two specialised engineering plants plus associated design bureaux and avionics manufacturer Electronpribor.
Source: Flight International