The draft law of the Ministry of Digital Development, which proposes the introduction of an infrastructure payment to the postal operator in the amount of 0.5% of the quarterly turnover of goods for online retailers whose annual revenue is 1 billion rubles or more, "will have a negative effect on the country's economy, the state of the industry and the well-being of the population," and its goals "do not correspond to the real state of affairs." Such conclusions are contained in a letter from the largest online trading companies to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. According to experts, in fact, subsidizing Russian Post by a business that provides the best service looks like a "non-market and unpromising idea" and will not solve the problems of the el salvador whatsapp resource unprofitable enterprise.
The heads of ten of the largest online trading companies, including Ozon, Sbermarket, Wildberries, M.Video-Eldorado, Avito, DNS, Lamoda, VseInstrumenty.ru, and Citylink, sent a collective letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin calling for action against the draft law on subsidies for the Russian Post business, a Forbes source familiar with the preparation of the document said. The sending of the letter (a copy of which is at Forbes's disposal) to the government was confirmed by the Association of Internet Trading Companies (AKIT). According to Forbes, it was also sent to the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Let us recall that in the spring of 2023, Russian Post proposed to the Ministry of Digital Development a mechanism to support the unprofitable network of post offices by collecting an infrastructure payment from participants in the e-commerce market. The company proposed to oblige owners of marketplaces and other participants in the e-commerce market, whose annual revenue is 1 billion rubles or more, to pay the postal operator an infrastructure payment in the amount of 0.5% of the quarterly turnover of goods.
The bill proposed by Russian Post and prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, and, as online retailers insist, "not discussed with the industry", provides for a quarterly payment by online trade companies to Russian Post in the amount of 0.5% of turnover. The authors of the document are convinced that the purpose of the payment is to overcome the unprofitability of the post office. "An obvious prerequisite for the emergence of such a legislative initiative is the loss of Russian Post JSC in 2022 in the amount of 27 billion rubles, which is proposed to be compensated for by an infrastructure payment," follows from the letter.
Leading players in the e-commerce market in their letter emphasize the potential harm of this initiative to the country's economy and the ineffectiveness of such a solution in terms of the overall task. Among their arguments, they, for example, point out the disproportionate nature of the proposed payment: for a number of companies, it is comparable to net profit. For example, Wildberries' net profit for 2022 was 10.1 billion rubles, and the contribution based on turnover would be 8 billion rubles.
In addition, the redistribution payment, according to the authors of the letter, "will have a negative impact on the country's economy": "Given the growth dynamics of the e-commerce market in 2024, more than 40 billion rubles may be withdrawn from the market." In addition, a payment of 0.5% of the quarterly turnover of goods "does not take into account the actual ability of individuals to pay it," they note: for Ozon, which continues to actively invest in its own development, a payment in favor of JSC Russian Post in the amount of 4.2 billion rubles would be added to the losses of 58 billion rubles in 2022.