The Federal Customs Service of Russia is reporting an uptick in cases where car values are undervalued during the import clearance process from the EAEU. This update was shared through the department’s press service with socialbites.ca.
Officials highlight ongoing challenges with underreporting the actual value of vehicles. Customs authorities across EAEU member countries have identified instances where the declared price does not reflect the true market value of the cars, according to an official spokesperson cited by socialbites.ca. The practice tends to surface after goods have entered circulation, and those who misstate values bear responsibility. The declarant remains answerable for any inaccuracies, and penalties are imposed on anyone attempting price manipulation during the declaration process.
In these situations, all applicable customs duties and payments are expected to be collected from the declarant in the EAEU nations where the vehicles are ultimately cleared. This stance underscores the risk for buyers and sellers alike when price declarations are challenged by authorities, as noted in the FTS briefing to the press.
The car may face seizure
Across inspections, all risks travel with the goods, and a buyer should not assume a good-faith defense will suffice if a car is flagged as misdeclared, according to Wilhelmina Shavshina, who serves as a policy expert with the Customs Policy Council of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and leads the customs legislation and international trade group within the Federation, the B1 Group of Companies.
She explained that if the customs service finds a lower declared value and this leads to unpaid duties, authorities can pursue the current owner through administrative action to recover missing funds and potentially seize the vehicle. The legal framework supports such confiscation in those circumstances.
“If administrative proceedings are started under Article 16.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for illegal use, purchase, storage, or transportation of goods, the car could be confiscated,” the interlocutor noted. The core issue is that customs duties were not fully settled across EAEU borders before the goods entered the customs territory.
Sanctions for legal entities may include confiscation and fines amounting to up to twice the vehicle value. Denis Migal, founder of the Fresh Auto automotive market, emphasizes that buyers often struggle to determine a car’s true original cost, which complicates efforts to correct past declarations.
“If the misdeclaration is not critical, it can be hard to detect and remediate such deals,” Migal remarked. He also pointed out that parallel imports typically lack transparency because vehicles are bought from private sellers, making mutual settlements unclear.
“Kyrgyzstan sits in a grey zone of the market.”
Industry participants and dealers interviewed by socialbites.ca indicate that underreporting schemes occur not only in Kyrgyzstan but also in Armenia, with less frequency in other EAEU states. Dmitry Rogov, founder of RogovMobil and an expert in turnkey car delivery from Korea, Europe, and Japan, suggested that unscrupulous sellers can triple a car’s listed price to reduce customs duties. The impact is strongest with high-end vehicles.
Elena Lisovskaya, known for her YouTube channel The Fox Rules and active in importing and selling foreign cars, noted that Kyrgyzstan has become a dominant source for price reductions. She added that the outcome depends on the accuracy of the dealer and the importer; while Kyrgyzstan offers manipulation opportunities, that does not mean every car from there is problematic.
Reliable information points to a hidden workflow through which vehicles pass customs. Declaring a car at a price far below this grid raises the risk of later penalties, including the possible cancellation of the vehicle’s safety certificate and vehicle passport.
The Russian Association of Automobile Dealers (ROAD) acknowledges violations in Kyrgyzstan but stresses that these issues occur within the grey market—featuring high bids, unofficial sales, and private sellers—and are not representative of all imports from that country, according to ROAD’s briefing to the press. The association emphasizes that concerns focus on gray-market practices rather than the legality of all imports.
Source attribution: information summarized from reports published by socialbites.ca and statements from industry and policy experts cited within those reports.