OREANDA-NEWS The regional authorities have asked to postpone the introduction of new lease rules for timber companies for two years or cancel them until the situation stabilizes. Earlier, enterprises increased transport subsidies and promised to help with the export of products for export, but they began to lack these benefits, Kommersant reports.

According to Alexander Dyatlov, chairman of the Arkhangelsk Legislative Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Agriculture and Ecology, in 2023, timber enterprises in the north-western regions of Russia received twice as much support as last year. Producers of pellets and lumber were included in the list of recipients of transport subsidies, and the amount of subsidies was increased from 300 to 500 million rubles. However, not everyone managed to get them.

"Not everyone can receive compensation for logistics costs. Whoever submitted the documents first received it, and then the money ran out, and the rest were left without support," explained Dyatlov. Representatives of the industry noted that the subsidies proposed by the state are leveled by the more expensive lease of forest plots. Therefore, the governors of the Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Novgorod regions and Karelia asked Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to reduce the fiscal burden and postpone the change in the methodology for calculating the rental rates of forest plots, which comes into force in December. Otherwise, the industry may face a twofold increase in the price of rent, the regional authorities warned. The year 2024 will already be difficult for the industry due to the rise in the cost of transportation, increased customs duties and the withdrawal of the excess profit tax.

"To all this, we can add an increase in prices for equipment and spare parts by two or three times, an increase in fuel prices and the persistence of problems with sales," Dyatlov said.

In mid-October, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the mandatory sale of proceeds in foreign currency, which some Russian exporters receive under foreign trade agreements. The list of industries that fell under the decree included companies of the fuel and energy complex, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical and forestry industries, as well as grain farming.