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New system of control over round timber trade to help boost budgetary revenures-Zubkov

The bulk of this timber is exported cauasing an economic loss of from 12 to 14 billion roubles
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, April 16 (Itar-Tass) —— The new system of control over the trade in round timber will help increase budgetary revenues by ten to twelve billion roubles, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said in an interview with the Monday issue of the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper.

According to the first deputy prime minister, annual volume of illegal logging accounts for about one percent of the entire timber harvest in Russia and amounts to about 1.3 million cubic meters. The bulk of this timber is exported cauasing an economic loss of from 12 to 14 billion roubles.

“A bill has been drafted at the instruction of the government to set up an utterly new system of state control over the trade in round timber,” he said. Under this system, logging operations will be required to produce declarations, which will help to create a nationwide database that “will be useful for law enforcement and controlling bodies.”

This measure, in his words, will help prevent marketing of illegal timber both domestically and on international markets. He expressed the hope that the “bill will help ensure the observance of the European Union’s standards due to be imposed in March 2013, under which timber exports to Europe would be possible only on confirming its legal origin.”