Russian customs fees 2026: the new rate scale and how it is applied
From 1 January 2026 Russia applies a new scale for the fee charged on every customs declaration. This is the payment your Russian customer makes when the cargo you have shipped clears customs — not a duty, not VAT, but a fixed charge tied to the declared customs value of the shipment.
Duty, VAT and the customs fee are three separate payments
When your Russian customer clears a shipment through customs, the payment is not one line but at least three separate charges, and each works differently. Import duty is a percentage of the customs value (or a fixed rate per unit) set by the HS code of the specific product — one line of goods might carry a 5% duty, another 15%, and some a specific rate in euro per kilogram. Import VAT is charged at 22% from 2026 (or 10% for a reduced list of goods) on the customs value plus duty plus any excise, and your customer — if VAT-registered — reclaims it as input VAT in the usual way. The full calculation is set out on our page on Russian customs duty and VAT (/baza/rastamozhka-poshlina-nds) and in our customs duty calculator (/kalkulyator-rastamozhki).
The third payment — the fee for customs operations — works differently again: it is a fixed amount charged simply because the customs authority processed the declaration and released the goods, and it does not depend on the HS code or the type of cargo at all, only on which band the declared customs value of the shipment falls into. From 1 January 2026 this fee follows a new scale, and that is what this article sets out.
Sanctions screening comes first
We only handle goods that are not subject to EU, UK, Swiss or US sanctions. Before we quote, we check the HS code of every item and screen all parties to the deal; if a product or a party is restricted, we decline the order, whatever the route or the price.
The 2026 scale: customs operations fee by declared value
| Declared customs value of the shipment | Fee |
|---|---|
| Up to and including RUB 200,000 | RUB 1,231 |
| RUB 200,000 – 450,000 | RUB 2,462 |
| RUB 450,000 – 1.2 million | RUB 4,924 |
| RUB 1.2 – 2.7 million | RUB 13,541 |
| RUB 2.7 – 4.2 million | RUB 18,465 |
| RUB 4.2 – 5.5 million | RUB 21,344 |
| RUB 5.5 – 10 million | RUB 49,240 |
| Over RUB 10 million | RUB 73,860 |
The fee is set by Russian Government Resolution No. 1637 of 28 November 2024, as amended by Resolution No. 1638 of 23 October 2025 and confirmed by an official clarification from the Federal Customs Service on 5 December 2025; it applies from 1 January 2026. The same scale is built into Tranzit3’s customs duty calculator (/kalkulyator-rastamozhki). A separate, rarer case applies when the customs value of the goods is not determined or declared at all: then the fee is charged by the number of line items in the declaration rather than by value — RUB 9,054 for up to 50 items, RUB 18,108 for 51–100 items and RUB 30,180 for 101 or more. The vast majority of wholesale shipments with a standard declaration fall under the value-based scale above.
What changed compared with the pre-2026 rates
The increase is uneven, and it is most noticeable on large shipments. For small shipments under RUB 200,000 the fee rose from RUB 1,067 to RUB 1,231 — about 15%. For shipments above RUB 10 million, the old scale had a single top threshold starting at RUB 7 million with a maximum fee of RUB 30,000; from 2026 that threshold moves to RUB 10 million and the maximum fee rises to RUB 73,860 — two and a half times higher. A new intermediate band for RUB 5.5–10 million, charged at RUB 49,240, did not exist before at all.
For your customer, the practical takeaway is simple: if a shipment consistently falls under a declared value of RUB 1.2 million, the fee increase is barely noticeable as a share of the shipment’s value. For large consolidated loads — several pallets of expensive equipment, or an electronics shipment above RUB 10 million — the new fee is worth factoring into the budget in advance.
The reason the increase is sharpest at the top of the scale is that those bands had gone unrevised the longest: the RUB 30,000 fee for shipments above RUB 7 million dated back to Resolution No. 1637 at the end of 2024 and had not kept pace with the rising average value of import shipments. The new threshold and fee are an attempt to bring the scale back in line with current trade volumes.
How the fee plays out on a real shipment
Example: a shipment of industrial equipment with a declared customs value of RUB 3.4 million falls into the RUB 2.7–4.2 million band, so the fee is RUB 18,465 regardless of the duty rate that applies to the goods. If the same shipment’s customs value were later revised upward to RUB 4.5 million, it would move into the next band and the fee would jump to RUB 21,344 — the amount changes in steps at each band boundary, not gradually.
The fee is paid before the declaration is lodged, or at the same time as it, and it is not refunded if the duty or VAT calculation on the same declaration is later revised — it is a fixed charge for the act of declaring, independent of everything else on that declaration.
The fee goes to the state, not to the customs broker
The customs operations fee is paid into the Russian state budget, not to the customs representative who prepares the declaration on your customer’s behalf. The broker’s own service fee is a separate cost, set by agreement and driven by the complexity and urgency of the shipment — it is not fixed by government resolution the way the customs fee is.
This distinction matters when your customer compares quotes from different brokers or forwarders: the fee itself is identical for everyone at a given declared value, so any difference in the total quote comes from the broker’s own service charge — and that is where there is room to compare.
When no fee is due at all: a documented import versus an all-in cargo service
The customs fee, duty and VAT only apply to a fully documented import with a complete customs declaration lodged in the name of your customer’s company — part of what we call a documented, or “white”, supply. Under an all-in cargo service, no declaration is lodged in the name of your customer’s company, so there is no fee, no duty, and no VAT deduction or closing paperwork either. Cargo is faster, but it does not suit goods your customer plans to resell or needs to carry on their company’s books.
Tranzit3 works only with companies and sole traders, from 50 kg per shipment (no weight limit for air freight), with a minimum service fee of €200. Our end-to-end customs clearance service (/usluga/customs) calculates all three payments — duty, VAT and the fee — while we are still working out the route with you.
Questions and answers on the 2026 customs fee
Can the fee be reduced by understating the declared value of the shipment?
No — an understated value risks a customs value adjustment, with duty, VAT and penalties charged on top once it is corrected.
Is the fee charged per line item in the declaration?
No, the fee is tied to the declaration as a whole, not to the number of line items in it.
Are these rates final for the whole of 2026, or could they change again?
As of publication, the scale introduced by Resolution No. 1638 from 1 January 2026 remains in force.
Does Tranzit3’s customs duty calculator include the fee?
Yes — our customs duty calculator (/kalkulyator-rastamozhki) calculates duty, VAT and the fee together.
Is the fee the same for imports and exports?
No, exports follow a separate scale, which this article does not cover.
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