OREANDA-NEWS. St. Petersburg authorities have appealed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation with a request to reduce customs duties on car components, which are used for SKD trucks in Russia. The chairman of the committee on industrial policy and innovation of city, Maxim Meyksin, informed the agency “TASS”.

"We have initiated a discussion in the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the tariff rates for parts, as now, there was a paradoxical situation where the import duty for new truck is 5%, and for spare parts to assemble the truck – it is 8%. We and relevant departments (Industry and Trade) are discussing issues of customs control”, - said Mr.Meyksin.

In St. Petersburg, there are located plants of SKD assembly of trucks and special vehicles of brands MAN and Scania. In particular, Scania introduced the practice of periodic downtime, as it predicted the reduction of the truck market in Russia in 2015, at least by 35%. As it was reported previously by the director of sales, "Scania Russia", Sergei Yavorsky, the plant in St. Petersburg produced 609 units with a total capacity of the plant in amount of 7.5 thousand cars. And the company "Man Trucks & Bus Production Rus" because of the falling demand stopped the assembly of MAN trucks at the plant in St. Petersburg from March 1st until May 12th.