The Accounts Chamber recognized special economic zones as inefficient in export development.

"We were carried away by the creation of preferential regimes, which ultimately do not bring anything, do not fulfill the target task for which they are created," the words of the chairman of the Accounts Chamber Alexei Kudrin are quoted in the message of the department.

The Accounts Chamber believes that the government-selected toolkit to stimulate the export of Russian products from the SEZ is ineffective and they suggest considering the possibility of introducing other measures. Information letters with this position will be sent to the Federal Customs Service and the government, and an analysis report to the State Duma and the Federation Council.

Residents chose reimport

According to the Accounts Chamber, goods from the SEZ practically do not enter foreign markets, but remain in the territory of the EAEU. Thus, in 2013–2016, the value of products for export did not exceed 8%.

During 2013-2017, residents imported goods on the territory of the SEZ with a customs value of 94.3 billion rubles, and exported after the completion of the free customs zone procedure - by 44.6 billion rubles.

At the same time, in 2013-2016, the most demanded customs procedure was the reimport. Residents imported products processed to the territory of the SEZ to the countries of the Customs Union without paying customs duties. According to the department, the savings of residents on payments amounted to more than 27 billion rubles.

However, since 2017, residents have practically ceased to use the customs procedure for re-import, because now only goods made entirely of EAEU products or remaining unchanged fall under it. The Accounts Chamber noted a sharp decline in business activity of residents - in 2017, the import of products in the SEZ and the export of goods after processing decreased by more than two times. "This suggests that residents, in fact, used the re-import regime to minimize their tax liabilities, and not to produce competitive goods and export them for export," said JV auditor Sergey Shtogrin.

Source: https://tass.ru