KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Forestry department collected more than RM155 million in revenue last year, Assistant State Minister to Chief Minister Datuk Nizam Titingan said today (April 23).
The amount, he said, is the revenue from timber royalties totalling RM93,270,201.64, and revenue from inspection fees for exported wood products amounting to RM3,872,617.40.
"The surplus revenue of RM58.2 million is derived from other forest revenues such as fees for forest reserve occupancy permits, license renewal fees, agroforestry royalties (rubber and oil palm), vehicle registration fees, and others," he said.
Nizam was replying to Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (Warisan-Senallang)'s question on the state revenue collected from timber-related activities during the state assembly sitting here.
He added that as of March 31 this year, the total collection of round timber royalties amounted to RM28.3 million, while revenue from inspection fees for exported wood products was RM629,672.90.
Revenue from other forest products amounted to approximately RM10.75 million.
"For your information, no fees are collected for wood processed in local sawmills as all revenue from round timber is already levied in the production areas (at source), before being sent to processing mills.
"Inspection fees are only charged for selected wood products exported and imported into Sabah."
