New tariffs on Russian trucks could increase the cost of real estate by nearly 10 percent by making it more expensive to transport building materials, a construction industry body has warned.
In a letter to the Housing Ministry obtained by the RBC news agency on Thursday, an association of major Moscow region construction companies said decisions this year to lower the maximum weight of road freight and impose a duty on the use of highways would increase construction costs by 7-9 percent.
The letter warned that higher costs could lead to a slowdown in the construction sector, according to RBC. Russia is already mired in an economic slump, with output expected to contract by around 4 percent this year.
The new freight tariff system, which uses satellite tracking to monitor trucks' movement along federal highways and charges a per-kilometer fee, incited nationwide protests by truckers when it began last week.
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