As of 1 January 2026, importers of goods (including packaged goods) will be obliged to pay the environmental fee in advance prior to the customs clearance not under the general procedure (post factum). In this article, we will explore the draft of the Russian Government decree which approves the procedure for conducting the experiment for assessing the effectiveness of the new mechanism before the relevant provisions begin to apply in full.

On 1 January 2024, Federal Law No. 451-FZ dated 4 August 2023 (the “Law”) came into force, introducing a number of significant changes to the Federal Law “On Production and Consumption Waste” as part of the “extended producer and importer responsibility” programme currently being implemented.

Among other things, the Law provides that, effective from 1 January 2026, importers of goods (including packaged goods) listed* by the Russian Government (the “List”) and imported from non-member states of the EAEU will be required to ensure the recycling of waste from using such goods and packaging from the day of their customs clearance.

An importer may comply with such an obligation either by paying an environmental fee or by notifying of its intention to recycle waste on its own providing security for paying the environmental fee (in the form of a bank guarantee or suretyship) in case it fails to recycle the waste on its own.

The Law provides two options for recycling waste on one’s own:

• the importer establishes and uses its own recycling infrastructure; or
• the importer enters into a recycling contract with a person or entity engaged in such business and included in the relevant register (the “Recycler”).

Therefore, as of 1 January 2026, an importer will be obliged to pay the environmental fee (or provide security for its payment – a bank guarantee or suretyship) in advance prior to the customs clearance of goods and packaging. Until this date, importers will continue to pay the environmental fee (or report on recycling on their own) under the general procedure, i.e. post factum by 15 April of the year following the reporting one.

It should also be noted that for the purposes of the above regulations, an importer means both a person or entity importing goods for further sale in Russia and a person or entity purchasing goods for its own needs.

Experiment

The Law provides that, to assess the effectiveness of the new mechanism requiring importers to ensure the recycling of waste from using goods, the Russian Government will conduct an experiment in relation to certain imported goods on the List.

A draft* of the relevant Russian Government decree, which approves the procedure for conducting the experiment (the “Draft”), has been recently published.

According to the Draft, the experiment is scheduled to occur between 1 September 2024 and 1 September 2025 in relation to the following types of goods (including packaged goods) imported from non-member states of the EAEU (“Goods”):

• pneumatic tyres and tyre casings;
• household washing machines; and
• consumer packaging made of combined materials based on paper and cardboard.

As stated in the explanatory note to the Draft, goods and packaging imported into Russia in the volume sufficient for representative findings have been selected for the experiment.

The participants in the experiment include the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Federal Service for Supervision over Natural Resource Management (Rosprirodnadzor), the Federal Customs Service, State-Run Non-Profit Company “Russian Environmental Operator” and importers of Goods. The Draft further expressly states that it is mandatory for importers to take part in the experiment.

According to the Draft, during the experiment, importers are required, before customs clearance, to submit reports on the weight of imported Goods to the unified federal state information system for recording the waste from using goods (the “System”) and perform one of the following actions:

• pay the environmental fee and submit data on its payment to the System;
• submit to the System a notice of intention to recycle the waste from using Goods on their own (the “Notice”), together with a bank guarantee for payment of the environmental fee in case the importer fails to recycle the waste on its own; or
• submit the Notice to the System, together with a suretyship agreement with the Recycler on paying the environmental fee in case the importer fails to recycle the waste on its own.

The Draft contains no special requirements for a bank guarantee or suretyship agreement. The Law merely refers to the general provisions of civil law. It specifies, however, that such bank guarantees and suretyship agreements shall expire on or after 15 October of the year following the year in which they are executed. The Law also provides that the standard form of a suretyship agreement will be established by the Ministry of Natural Resources (still to be developed).

It seems that, unless the Law is further amended and until the standard form of a suretyship agreement is approved, an importer may determine on its own the terms of a bank guarantee or suretyship agreement in consultation with a relevant bank or the Recycler, subject to the above requirements for amounts to be secured and the validity period. It is possible, however, that in practice certain provisions of customs or tax law containing detailed requirements for bank guarantees and suretyship agreements to be executed as security for customs and tax liabilities, will apply by analogy.

Following their participation in the experiment, importers shall inform the Ministry of Natural Resources, by 15 September 2025, about any concerns arising in the execution and submission of reports, Notices, bank guarantees and suretyship agreements to the System.

No later than 15 September 2025, Rosprirodnadzor shall carry out a verification (and submit its results to the Ministry of Natural Resources) in respect of the following data:

• weight of customs-cleared Goods and whether the environmental fee has been paid for such Goods;
• weight of customs-cleared Goods, for which the importer has submitted the Notice together with a bank guarantee or suretyship agreement; and
• whether importers have reported on any recycling made on their own, and results of verifying such reports.

Interestingly, according to the Draft, the Federal Customs Service shall submit information on imported Goods to the System by 15 January 2025. It can be assumed that Goods imported after this date will be considered in Rosprirodnadzor’s verification based on importers’ reports only.

It is planned that the Ministry of Natural Resources will submit its report analysing the experiment outcome to the Russian Government by 1 November 2025. Therefore, unless the timing of the experiment is shifted, the Russian Government will have about two months to assess the experiment results and, if necessary, initiate amendments to the Law.

It is also important to note that, according to the Draft, the customs authorities’ unawareness that an importer has paid the environmental fee or submitted the Notice to the System cannot be a ground for refusal to perform customs clearance of Goods. As the Law contains no similar condition, it can be assumed that at the end of the experiment, when the general provisions of the Law begin to apply, the customs authorities will require that importers provide an appropriate proof as a condition for customs clearance.

The Draft contains no releases of importers from liability for non-compliance with the established rules during the experiment. Accordingly, based on the general provisions of the Law, in the event that an importer fails to comply with its obligation to ensure recycling (e.g., by failing to provide or providing false information to the System or failing to ensure recycling on its own), Rosprirodnadzor may issue a prescriptive order to the importer requiring it to pay the environmental fee in the appropriate amount. The importer can also be held administratively liable under Article 8.2 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences.

Conclusion

The experiment described above can be regarded as a transitional period before the new mechanism requiring importers to ensure the recycling of waste from using goods is launched.

It is unlikely that the experiment will result in the repeal of the relevant provisions of the Law. Instead, adjustments to the mechanism are probable, aiming to enhance coordination and interaction among participants.

As noted by Rosprirodnadzor in their comments on the Draft, one of the primary objectives of the new mechanism is to combat “grey” importers who neglect to submit reports and pay environmental fees at all.

However, on the other hand, the scheme implemented in the Law, where the environmental fee has to be paid in advance, places importers at a disadvantage compared to local producers, for whom the previously established general procedure for paying the environmental fee “on actual basis” remains largely unchanged. In addition, this may lead to additional delays in customs clearance of imported goods, as customs authorities are likely to require importers to prove payment of the environmental fee (or provide security in the form of a bank guarantee or suretyship).

It is also not yet clear how willingly and on what terms banks and Recyclers will issue bank guarantees and suretyships. There is a risk that, in the end, advance payment of the environmental fee will be the only alternative available to importers, inevitably impacting the final price of imported goods.

This article has been published in the special issue of AEB Business Quarterly Magazine.

The publication is also available in Chinese and Russian.

* In Russian