Russian authorities are discussing with businesses the introduction of a reduced VAT rate of 10% for highly automated transport services: passenger transportation, courier delivery, and cargo transportation. Kommersant writes about this, citing sources involved in the discussion. At the standard 22%, the autonomous model loses competitiveness compared to conventional transportation.
According to the publication's sources, the benefit will allow the turnover of the civil unmanned industry to increase to 2 trillion rubles by 2036–2040 and partially compensate for the shortage of couriers, taxi drivers, and cargo transport drivers. Currently, unmanned trucks, taxis, and trams operate only within experimental legal regimes, and the law on highly automated vehicles has not yet been submitted to the State Duma.
According to the Ministry of Transport's forecasts, more than 200 unmanned taxis will be on the roads by the end of 2026, and their number will grow to 1,000 by 2030. The fleet of robot couriers exceeds 1,000 rovers, and by the end of 2027, it could reach 20,000. 111 unmanned trucks, which have completed about 12.5 thousand commercial trips, are connected to the ERA-GLONASS platform. Experts predict that by 2031, the market will exceed 100 billion rubles. Yandex remains the main player: the company plans to bring its fleet of unmanned passenger cars to 200 and cargo cars to almost 100 by the end of the year.