MOSCOW: Russian polymers importers faced problems with customs clearance at the end of February because of tighter controls on the cost of goods being cleared, market participants said.
On 16 February the Federal Customs Service (FCS) issued an order entitled “On improving the efficiency of the control of the customs value within the risk management system.”
The order means the strengthening of control over declaration of customs value of goods. As a consequence, most importers have faced a higher value placed on goods as the basis for taxation.
Some market participants said that the indicative price for 39 Group FEACC – Polymers and Polymer goods – grew to $1,900/tonne.
The indicative price is the lowest price for goods according to customs opinion and forms the basis for calculating import duty and VAT.
Because of a high level of indicative prices for polymers, importers have to pay a higher tax charge. This leads to an increase in the cost of final products, made from polymers.
At the same time the procedure of customs clearance of goods now takes a few days, whereas the earlier registration could take several hours.
Companies/importers understand that tighter control for declaration of goods value was necessary. However, they want indicative polymer and polymer goods prices to be realistic, while the current basis price is several times higher than real prices.
For example, prices of polypropylene (PP) in Turkmenistan are about $650/tonne; acetylene polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in China is $620-650/tonne; and polyethylene (PE) ranged depending on the grade and country/producer at $1,080-1,500/tonne.
MRC, a partner of ICIS, produces polymers news and pricing reports from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
