Meanwhile, Kaliningrad consumer electronics assemblers demanded imposition of prohibitive duties at the level of 25% as in their view in existing conditions import is more lucrative than assembling in Russia. A 15% duty might be insufficient, experts believe.
PR-Director of the Association of trading companies and manufacturers of consumer electronic and computer equipment (RATEK) Anton Guskov refers to statistics on that: around 40% of LCD TV-sets sold on the Russian market in 2008 were manufactured in Russia.
Mr. Guskov believes that a 15% duty is a reasonable compromise which “does not kill imports completely” and protects Russian production. However, in his opinion the next step should be abolishment of import duties on components for all Russian manufacturers, not only Kaliningrad manufacturers.
A number of companies in Kaliningrad operate in the special economic zone (SEZ) regime assembling consumer electronics under Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, Hitatchi, Hyundai and JVC brands. The status of SEZ residents allows these companies to import parts without paying duties. However, this has not become anti-crisis panacea – TV-sets production volumes in the region dropped 2.73 times to 237.6 thousand units in January-February. Some plants have come to a halt. Last year Kaliningrad accounted for 97% of tube TV-sets and 65-70% of LCD TV-sets assembled in Russia. Read more in Russian… [2]
NOTE: News marked with OLN acronym is a translation prepared by AIKE to inform English speaking audience of the website on Kaliningrad news that are as a rule not covered in English anywhere else on the Internet. A link to the Russian source of information is provided in every OLN item in case you would like to learn more on the issue.