Article
Russian companies begin paying environmental fee

According to the Federal Law as of 24.06.1998 №89-FL (edited 28.12.2016) «On Wastes of Production and Consumption » and the Federal Law as of 29.12.2015 №404-FL «On Amendments to the Federal Law «On Environmental Protection» and certain legislative acts of the RF», since April 15, 2017 manufacturers and importers of goods utilized after consumer performance loss are obliged to pay an environmental fee.

The list of finished goods (including packing) utilized after consumer performance loss is approved by the Order of the Government of the RF as of 24.09.2015 № 1886-r (edited 19.01.2017). The list includes:

  • accumulators and accumulator batteries;
  • barrels and similar metallic containers, metallic package;
  • paper and paper products , paper stationery, corrugated carton, paper and carton package;
  • consumer electronics;
  • household nonelectric appliances;
  • outwear, workwear and underwear;
  • wooden building goods and joinery, wooden package;
  • carpets, carpet and textile products;
  • computers, peripheral and communication equipment;
  • vehicles and general purpose equipment;
  • oil products;
  • optical instruments and photographic equipment;
  • printed newspapers;
  • plastic packaging and building products;
  • power-operated hand tools;
  • flat bent and worked glass, glass bottles and flacons, other hollow glasswork;
  • refrigerator and ventilation industrial equipment;
  • household, sanitary and toilet goods and appliances;
  • tires, scrap tires, rubber bags and other rubber products;
  • electrical lighting and household equipment and appliances.

The environmental fee is classified by the Federal Law as non-tax revenues of the federal budget and, according to the Decision of the Government of the RF, is administered by the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage (Rosprirodnadzor).

The environmental fee for packed goods that are not ready to use is paid only for package, and the fee is not paid for goods utilized and exported from Russia.

The environmental fee rate is based on average expenses for collection, transportation, processing and utilization of products lost consumer performance. Unit costs for infrastructure development for that purpose also can be included into the environmental fee rate.

The environmental fee rates are established by the Decision of the Government of Russia.

The amount of an environmental fee is calculated by multiplying of the environmental fee rate by mass or quantity of finished goods subjected to utilization on the territory of the RF, or by mass of package used for production of this good, and by utilization standard expressed in relative units. If manufacturers or importers, that utilize waste by themselves, fail to achieve these standards, there is payment of an environmental fee calculated as multiplying of the environmental fee rate by the difference between established and real values of the utilized waste quantity.

The Federal Law admits waste utilization both independently and based on contract with a correspondent special-purpose authorized enterprise. For that purpose making manufacturers or importers union is also possible.

In practice, the amount of fee is defined on the basis of confirmed report forms. Manufacturers and importers are obliged to send the declaration indicating quantity of produced or imported goods and package for the year following the accounting period and the report on quantity of utilized waste to the Rosprirodnadzor to the 1st of April.

It is necessary to calculate and pay an environmental fee to April, 15.

Article
Amendments to the Federal Law «On the National Payment System»

According to the Federal Law as of 03.04.2017 №59-FZ «On amending Federal Law «On the National Payment System» Chapter 3 of the Federal Law as of 27.06.2011 №161-FZ «On the National Payment System» is supplemented by article 19.1 «Peculiarities of cross-border transfer of funds in case of prohibitions, imposed by a foreign state».

According to the article, in case of prohibitions, imposed by foreign states in relation to the Russian payment systems, the cross-border transfers of funds without opening of an account will be restricted.

Thus, the cross-border transfers from Russia can be made only in case of direct or indirect control from side of Russian legal entities represented by payment system operators or payment infrastructure service providers. Such control conditions are defined by International financial reporting standards, which are recognized on the territory of Russia. In other cases, the control is carried out through the right of Russian legal entities on direct or indirect disposal of more than 50% of total number of votes represented by voting shares or equity stakes of payment system operators or payment infrastructure service providers. Such right can also be obtained as a result of singing the contracts on trust administration of property, partnership, contract of delegation or for other reasons.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation is planning to publish on its official web site data on prohibitions, imposed by foreign states in relation to payment systems, the operators of which are registered in the Central Bank. Prohibitions will be imposed from the date of posting of this information.

The Federal Law will come into force on 5 May 2017. However, the restrictions on cross-border transfers of funds will also be applied in cases of prohibitions in relation to Russian payment systems, introduced before the date of entry into force of this law.

It is possible to make an indirect conclusion on potential size of changes on the base of operations with foreign currency in cash on the territory of Russia (Table 1).

Table 1. The data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on operations with foreign currency in cash on the territory of the Russian Federation through authorized banks and their branches (in dollar equivalent for all currencies), mln USD.
 20092010201120122013201420156 months 2016
Foreign currency in cash taken out by banks from the Russian Federation 18 152 14 993 7 015 5 768 9 471 7 981 17 482 5 243
Foreign currency in cash sold to individuals and given out as a result of conversion 50 317 39 456 51 833 61 961 59 546 71 865 37 147 16 314
Foreign currency in cash given out from the accounts of individuals 35 239 30 679 33 674 38 048 39 267 59 601 39 901 20 483
Foreign currency in cash given out to individuals as a result of transfers without opening of an account 1 531 2 119 3 281 2 160 2 311 2 638 2 321 1 100

Rates of growth / drawdown from year to year of monthly average amounts of the above operations with foreign currency in cash are represented on Picture 1.

Темпы роста / снижения от года к году среднемесячных сумм
Рисунок 1. Темпы роста / снижения от года к году среднемесячных сумм

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