Stumpage

Stumpage 

funds received in the state budget of the USSR and local budgets from logging organizations for the standing timber released to these organizations by state forestry establishments; such funds also cover windfall timber.

Stumpage is paid by the logging organizations according to a schedule established by the Ministry of Finances of the USSR. It is the principal type of forestry income and is reflected in the net cost of timber hauled. Stumpage is designed to compensate for the costs of forestry, to stimulate efficient use of forest resources, and to make logging and timber distribution establishments uniformly profitable. It is computed and collected by state forestry establishments from all logging organizations according to forest tariffs ratified by the State Committee for Prices of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Stumpage developed as a form of forest rent and was first collected in Russia’s state forests in 1799. After the Great October Socialist Revolution, it was instituted in 1923. It was abolished for the chief logging organizations in 1930 but was restored in 1949. In 1974, stumpage amounted to about 12 percent of the net cost of timber hauled. The rate of stumpage is determined by forestry expenditures, and tariffs are differentiated according to forest stands, region, type of tree, quality of timber, and hauling distance.

REFERENCES

Vangnits, P. R. Taksy i tseny na lesoproduktsiiu. Moscow-Leningrad, 1953.
Shkatov, V. K. Popennaia plata v SSSR. Moscow, 1965.

V. K. SHKATOV