The Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission has taken a decision to zero out the duties for the passenger electric cars being imported to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan). Now the duty makes up 17%. As regards the duties for commercial electric cars weighing no more than 5 tons, they will be reduced threefold to 5%, the Eurasian Economic Commission reports. The decision does not apply to the cars with hybrid engines.
Russia-based Vedomosti newspaper reports that the reduction of the duties is needed for promoting the use of ecologically friendly transport in the EEU and for creating favorable conditions to form a market of electric cars.
According to the Eurasian Economic Commission, in 2015 as many as 684 electric cars were imported to the EEU (mostly from the United States, China and Japan). The number of electric cars imported in Jan- Apr 2016 was 28.