OREANDA-NEWS $31 billion worth of duty-free goods can be imported into Russia in a year, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov said at a briefing, Gazeta.ru reported.

"The volume of imports on "zero duty items" is estimated at $31 billion a year. Only for two weeks of the measure, the amount of benefits granted amounted to 811 million rubles. The privilege was used by 325 participants of foreign economic activity", - said Reshetnikov.

According to him, this should curb the rise in prices for goods of different categories.

The minister reminded that at the end of April another 924 commodity items will be exempted from import duties. Thus the importer won't have to contact specialized agencies to confirm the import of the goods. Zero duty will be applied automatically upon submission of customs declaration.

In March, the government exempted more than 1,000 items of goods from import duties of 5-10% - mainly raw materials for pharmacology and food production, vegetables, seeds were included in the list. Duties on finished products remained mostly unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Development called this measure one of the key responses to the Western sanctions.