It is the Swedish Transport Administration's auditors that have made the authority aware that timber deposits on public roads must be taxed. The fee of SEK 2,900 applies only to public roads, not individual roads or forest car roads.
A timber car with a trailer holds three piles of wood and each pile is worth just over SEK 3,000. So for the small forest owners who only cut out a few stacks of wood each year and put it on a public road, the fee becomes noticeable.
- This is an important issue for the individual forest owners and the Swedish Transport Administration must clarify how this is to be controlled and what the fee itself goes to, says Jörgen Bergh, logistics manager at Norra Skogsägarna in Umeå.
Forest owner: "Unreasonable fee"Among the individual forest owners, the dissatisfaction with the new fee is also great.
- It is completely unreasonable, they try to confiscate the value of my wood, says Svarte Svartling, a forest owner outside Umeå.
According to the Swedish Transport Administration, the fee is used to handle applications for timber offset by public road.
Hear Svarte Svartling's criticism and the Swedish Transport Administration's response in the clip above.