Kazakhstan plans to increase the recycling fee for vehicles imported from Russia after officials in Moscow followed through with a scheduled hike to Russia’s own recycling duty that was introduced to support domestic automanufacturing.
“We’re mirroring Russia’s position,” Kazakh media quoted Industry and Construction Minister Ersayin Nagaspayev as saying.
In 2024, Russia introduced a recycling fee as a one-time payment collected from importers, manufacturers and buyers to cover the future disposal of a vehicle. The recycling fee was raised in January as part of an annual 10-20% hike that is expected to continue until 2030.
Kazakhstan’s current recycling fee for an imported passenger vehicle is roughly equivalent to 117,000 rubles ($1,500).
Russia’s fee for a standard imported car with engine sizes between one and two liters is 800,000 rubles ($10,200), more than double the previous rate. The recycling fee can exceed 1 million rubles (12,700) for cars with more than 160 horsepower.
Nagaspayev said Kazakhstan’s reciprocal duty increase this year is expected to raise the cost of Russian vehicles by 3.7%.
“Not that many cars from Russia enter Kazakhstan, so there will be no dramatic increase,” he said.
Lada, Russia’s flagship car brand manufactured by AvtoVAZ, ranked 17th among Kazakhstan’s best-selling brands in 2025.
An AvtoVAZ spokesperson said last week the automaker was “closely monitoring” developments in neighboring Kazakhstan amid reports that the Central Asian country would hike its vehicle recycling fee.
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