Roman Sklyar gave an interview to the Khabar 24 TV channel, in which he answered to the criticism and the most popular questions regarding the recycling fee for the import of foreign industrial products.

During the conversation, the First Vice Prime Minister commented on the most common misconceptions, and also explained what the recycling duty is, why and for what it was introduced, what types of products it applies to and what needs of the country the accumulated funds are directed to.

In addition, he spoke about the priorities of the industrial policy of the republic and the reasons why the state supports domestic enterprises for the production of cars and agricultural machinery.

“The Head of State made it clear that it is necessary to support domestic production! The well-being of the population of our country depends on the level of development of the national economy. While those who manipulate public opinion and demand the complete abolition of the waste collection work in the interests of importers of foreign equipment. This means that in fact they are against the economy of Kazakhstan,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister.

At the same time, he added that the recycling fee for motor vehicles was introduced back in 2016, but active propaganda for the abolition of the recycling fee on social networks began for some reason only now, after 5 years.

According to Roman Sklyar, lobbyists of importers, not understanding the approaches to the organization of automobile production, mislead the population. The truth is that the recycling levy was not introduced to directly support the auto industry. That is, the money that domestic producers receive is in fact their own funds, previously paid for the recycling duty. This is the way it should be according to the WTO requirements: the manufacturer is obliged, like importers, to pay a disposal fee. But then he gets back the money he paid.

“This is done so that the price of a car produced in the country does not increase for the consumer. Thus, the recycling fee is a measure to protect the domestic market, to some extent a tariff barrier measure. In the world, various methods are used to protect their own market: from a complete ban on imports to restrictive measures, including environmental ones. A recycling fee has been chosen in the EAEU,” the First Vice Prime Minister noted.

Sklyar believes that it is necessary to clearly understand the consequences of taking the wrong actions, which can result in the closure of enterprises, the loss of the market, mastered technologies, jobs and specialists already trained according to international standards.

At the end of the interview, the First Deputy Prime Minister reported on the recommendations and decisions on revising the utilization payment rates, adopted following an expert discussion at the site of the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs.

“Since January 2022, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, meetings of working groups have been held to review the rates of utilization payment for various categories of goods. All interested parties are involved in the work, incl. farmer representatives. Everyone was given the opportunity to speak,” said the guest representative of the Government.

As a result, the Government decided to cancel the rates for cable and wire products, for recreational equipment (due to the lack of its own production) and, in order to develop the country's transport and logistics potential, for truck tractors used in international transportation.

In addition, the working group recommended to reduce to 50% of the current rates for motor vehicles and agricultural machinery.