«To buy more domestic goods»: how Tatarstan refuses to purchase foreign goods
Participants in public procurement in the Republic of Tatarstan were warned about switching to the priority regime for domestic goods. Now a supplier of foreign products may lose out in the tender, even if its price is lower than that of its Russian counterparts. KazanFirst experts say that this is a necessary measure: it takes time for production in Russia to become competitive.
The unification of the national public procurement regime has been in effect since the beginning of 2025. A complete ban has been imposed on the purchase of foreign-made industrial goods for state and municipal needs, as well as software that is in the register of Russian programs. This was announced by the Chairman of the State Procurement Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Ziatdinov. He added that access restrictions have also been introduced for foreign industrial goods, electronic products, food, medical products and medicines.
"Thus, the new rules are aimed at supporting domestic producers and stimulating import substitution in public procurement,— the head of the department stressed.
According to him, the federal law has significantly adjusted the norms of two basic laws in matters of national treatment. The emphasis is on providing advantages to Russian manufacturers and supporting the domestic economy.
Now customers can completely prohibit the purchase of imported products or restrict their participation in tenders. This means that if there is at least one bid for Russian goods that meet the requirements, the foreign bid will be rejected.
If the participation of imported products is not prohibited, participants offering Russian goods, works or services will receive benefits. For example, when calculating the tender results, the bid price for Russian goods will be reduced by 15%. This does not mean that the contract price will be reduced — the contract is concluded at the actual price offered, but due to these 15%, Russian participants will be able to take higher positions in the final protocol, which increases their chances of winning. Thus, even if a foreign product costs less than a domestic product, priority will be given to the Russian manufacturer.
Ziatdinov recalled that in 2024, the republic conducted purchases totaling 211 billion rubles, including 39 billion rubles by municipal customers. At the same time, the amount of contracts with small businesses amounted to 76 billion rubles. About 10% of the total cost is made up of purchases from a single supplier, with a total of 20 billion rubles worth of such contracts.
The largest purchases in 2024 took place in preparation for the BRICS Sports Games. At that time, 44 transactions totaling almost 195 million rubles passed through the mediation of the state Committee. In total, in 2024, the committee carried out 928 purchases worth about 7 billion rubles. Almost 70% of the contracts were concluded with republican suppliers and contractors, Ziatdinov stressed.
The official estimated the resulting savings: about 4.5% of the total amount of orders, or more than 310 million rubles. As part of the agreements for individual legal entities, the state committee placed 560 purchases for a total amount of about 10 billion rubles. Savings in the range of 3%, or more than 226 million rubles, were achieved.