NEWS


25
May 2017
Thursday

On May 12, 2017 amendments to the list of timber types, determining in accordance with All-Russian Products Classifier by Types of Economic Activity, which are effected by requirements of the Russian Federation Forest Code on timber transportation and record of transactions with it, was approved by the Russian Federation Government Decree No 911-r. The Russian Federation Government Decree No 911-r of May 12, 2017 shall come into force on July 1, 2017.

Nowadays state regulation of timber turnover has a shortage in terms of non-coverage of production types which are regulated by forest legislation resulting in unscrupulous timber loggers’ use of timber receiving and primary processing points located in immediate neighborhood of illegal logging areas for legalization of illegal timber by primary processing. As a result, uncontrollable products of primary processing – timber materials which are not regulated by the forest legislation and may be freely transported, sold and tax-free exported, are appearing in the timber market.

The Russian Federation Government Decree No 911-r is aimed at solving of this problem – products of primary timber logging have been entered in the sphere of regulation of the forest legislation, ten new types of timber in the form of tree-length material of hardwoods have been added to the regulations of the forest legislation on timber recording and transactions with it– in such a way the gap in branch part of OKPD2 classifier has been closed up.

The most important thing that 24 types of timber i.e. 24 items of commodity classification – timber materials now shall fall within the scope of forest legislation on recording of transactions with it. It means that for these 24 types of timber materials one must draw supporting documents and all transactions with such products must be registered with LesEGAIS. This is absolutely new requirement; it shall expand the scope of forest legislation and shall come into force on July 1, 2017.

Such items as timber materials of softwood, pine, fir-tree, larch, cedar, silver fir, other softwood, timber materials of hardwood, oak, beech, ash-tree, birch, aspen, poplar, alder, linden and other hardwood were entered into the list. Besides, unimpregnated sleepers – for railways of broad and narrow gage lines, for underground railway, as well as unimpregnated joists and planks for railway switch were entered into the list as certain types.

It is a little over a month till the new requirements are coming into force and all entrepreneurs and branch associations have an important task to inform employees, entrepreneurs and enterprises so that they get acquainted how to fill documents, how to enter data into LesEGAIS, considering that for data entering into LesEGAIS it is required to register individually in the system and possess enhanced encrypted digital signature for transactions confirmation.

Whose who has already been concerned with LesEGAIS, for example, employees of sawmills, who has been purchasing raw materials in the market, will

have no problems with it – but if earlier they have only purchased timber for sawing, from now they will register processing products as well. Timber materials intermediaries will have to become familiar with the requirements of legislation.

At the same time as new regulations come into force, new norms of amenability for violation and non-fulfillment of new requirements are also come into force. Anyone who fails to enter transactions with timber into LeEGAIS or to draw supporting documents by transportation of timber shall be subject to administrative forfeiture.

Thus, the failure to submit or delayed submission of the declaration on transactions with timber, as well as providing knowingly false information in the declaration on transactions with timber shall be punishable by administrative fine for officials in the amount of from five thousand to twenty thousand rubles; for persons engaged in entrepreneurial activities without establishment of a legal entity - from seven thousand to twenty-five thousand rubles; for legal entities - from one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand rubles.

Failure to submit or delayed submission of in information into LesEGAIS by officials of competent public authorities, local self-government bodies, as well as providing knowingly false information, shall be punishable by an administrative fine in the amount of from five thousand to twenty thousand rubles.

For violation of the timber recording procedure the officials shall be punishable by administrative fine in the amount of from twenty-five to thirty thousand rubles; legal entities – from two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand rubles.

Violation of the requirements of the forest legislation in terms of mandatory marking of timber shall be punishable by an administrative fine in the amount of thirty thousand to forty thousand rubles with or without confiscation of wood for officials; and for legal entities – in the amount of from three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rubles with or without the confiscation of wood.

Transportation of timber without the supporting document executed in accordance with the procedure established by the forest legislation shall be punishable by an administrative fine for officials in the amount from thirty thousand to fifty thousand rubles with confiscation of timber and (or) means of transport, serving as a tool of an administrative offense, or without it; for legal entities - from five hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand rubles with confiscation of timber and (or) means of transport, serving as a tool of an administrative offense, or without it.

Data on 526 thousand transactions on purchase and sale of timber have already been entered into LesEGAIS. Only in the year of 2017 data on more than 124 thousand transactions have been entered and more than 800 declarations on transactions with timber are being registered on a daily basis.

The system keeps more than 4 million of title documents and reports, including - 150 thousand lease agreements, 2.3 million contracts of sale, 273 thousand forest declarations, 1.6 million reports on the use of forests, 34 thousand state contracts. In 2017 data on 300.2 thousand marked pieces of oak, beech and ash-trees was entered into LesEGAIS for export from the Russian Federation.

As of May 12, 2017 more than 40.3 thousand accounting records for legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, 8.3 thousand accounting records for the subjects of the Russian Federation and forest divisions, 2 thousand accounting reports for employees of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, 1.36 thousand accounting records for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, 914 accounting reports for employees of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, 231 accounting records for employees of the Federal Agency for State Property Management of the Russian Federation, 127 accounting records for employees of the Federal Bailiff Service of the Russian Federation, 114 accounting records for the employees of the Office of the Procurator General of the Russian Federation , 67 accounting records for municipal entities and 32 accounting records for employees of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Natural Resource Use of the Russian Federation were entered into LesEGAIS.

In 2017, 3.6 thousand administrative cases were initiated related to illegal timber turnover: 3.4 thousand of them by forest management bodies. Fines in the amount of 27 831 thousand rubles were imposed by administrative infringement protocols drawn up by the officials of the Federal Agency for Forestry and the Department of Forestry in the federal districts.


SUBSCRIBE FOR NEWS
All content on this site is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International