MOSCOW, July 17 (Reuters) - Russia plans to raise by 25 percent duty for satellite navigation equipment operating with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Igor Ivanov as saying on Friday.
Russia has launched its own system known as GLONASS, but admits it still has a long way to go both in satellite fleet and in equipment to compete with GPS. Ivanov said the duty hike was needed to encourage production of GLONASS-enabled devices.
"We need measures to stimulate production of domestic satellite navigators so that they can compete with foreign GPS devices," Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying.
GLONASS, short for Global Navigation Satellite System, began as a military project in the 1970s but stalled in the early 1990s. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the system a priority for his government. (Writing by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Greg Mahlich)