The Government of the Russian Federation is adopting measures to encourage wood processing

The document was signed by Viktoria Abramchenko, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, following a meeting with Vladimir Putin. A total of 46 problems were included in the list, along with the same number of potential solutions classified into regulatory / legal, organizational, control and process actions. WhatWood Agency has picked some of them.

Action List:

December 1, 2020

• Bringing a bill to Duma concerning creation of Timber Industry Federal Government Information System (FGIS LK) with Unified State Automated Information System (USAIS) functionality for accounting of timber and transactions therewith, as well as maintaining a state forest register there, creating and blocking support documents for timber; integrated with other informational systems.
• Bringing a bill to Duma concerning selling on the exchange the timber harvested by state and municipal institutions during forest management operations.
• Considering the issue of continuous targeted monitoring of financial transactions made by companies exporting timber products.
• Introducing a cubic meter as an additional unit of measurement for the sake of a consistent approach to accounting timber and timber products turnover and export.
• Updating the list of Russian state border inspection posts through which timber products may be exported.

December 10, 2020

• Establishing requirements to equipping harvesting machinery and log trucks with GLONASS traffic control devices via.

December 15, 2020

• Bringing a bill to Duma concerning changes in customs regulation of timber export, including cancellation of incomplete declaration.
• Introducing separate accounting of timber products depending on moisture content and imposing a prohibitive customs duty and (or) an environmental levy on timber products whose moisture content is above 22%, and also for roundwood, while simultaneously reviewing the size of customs quotas.
• Introducing a ban on exporting unprocessed or roughly processed softwood and precious hardwood products from the Russian Federation as of January 1, 2022.
• Adopting a regulation that stipulates subsidized lending for small and medium-size enterprises as of January 1, 2021 in order to create value-added wood processing capacities.
• Developing a mechanism to terminate activity and exclude from Uniform State Register of Legal Entities the companies that violate the laws of timber harvesting, circulation and export.

December 25, 2020

• Approving the new revision of Forest Sector Development Strategy of the Russian Federation.
• Adding the capability to track timber and timber articles supply chains and transactions on LesEGAIS (Timber Unified State Automated Information System) platform based on species and cut-to-length attributes, from the time of harvesting to processing or export from the Russian Federation.
• Adding the capability to track commodities based on primary accounting documents and documents confirming transfer of title; submitting LesEGAIS data to the Unified Automated Information System of customs authorities.

December 31, 2020

• Holding events on forests taxation and designing intense forest use activities and forest management.

February 1, 2021

• Unifying EAEU CN of FEA codes and OKPD2 codes related to timber industry products.
• Holding an inventory count of dead-end railway spurs, improving the national system of controlling timber transportation by road and railway.
• Ensuring control of railway spurs used to haul timber bypassing inspection posts at the state border between Russia and Kazakhstan.

March 1, 2021

• Introducing changes in laws and regulations in order to enhance control of priority investment projects in the forest sector.
• Conducting inspections of forest sector projects for compliance with the requirements of forest legislation (quarterly).

July 1, 2021

• Developing proposals on introducing changes in the EAEU Customs Code concerning the possibility of refusal to let the goods through in case of identified noncompliances with Unified State Automated Information System (USAIS) for Timber Accounting or Timber Industry Federal Government Information System (FGIS LK).
• Rolling out mortgage programs for private housing construction using industrially produced wooden house kits.

September 1, 2021

• Creating a publicly available map of Russian forests: digitizing forest management materials, calculating spatial coordinates of forest areas and felling sites, integration with Unified State Register of Taxpayers Federal Government Information System, developing a map of forest areas and felling sites referencing lease contracts, purchase and sale contracts and rights of use, public contracts and assignments for forest management operations, etc.

December 1, 2021

• Implementing a series of measures aimed at building 20% of residential houses and social and cultural facilities using wooden structures.

April 1, 2022

• Ensuring incremental installation of additional equipment at state border inspection posts through which timber product exports are allowed in order to create full control conditions as of July 1, 2022.