The Department of Home Affairs administers tariff classification codes and conversion factors under the Customs Tariff Act 1995.
For further information about how the tariff classification codes and conversion factors might impact the total amount of charge applied to an imported forest industries product, please contact the Department of Home Affairs at: Tariff Classification or call 1800 053 016.
Forest industries products import charge
For forest industries products that are logs, the import charge that applies to those logs is the same levy rate that would be applied if the logs had been produced in Australia and delivered to a mill in Australia for processing.
Otherwise, for forest industries products that are not logs and are set out in the table below, the import charge that applies is the same levy rate that would be applied in respect of logs of the same class that were used to produce the forest products if the logs had been produced in Australia and delivered to a mill in Australia for processing, multiplied by the conversion factor that was determined by the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources.
I.e. class of log (levy rate) x imported forest product (conversion factor) = import charge rate
The Forest industries products levy page sets out the rates for logs that have been produced in Australia and delivered to a mill in Australia for processing.
Imported forest products, in addition to logs, are defined in the Customs Tariff Act 1995. These products and the conversion factors are set out in the table below:
| Imported forest product | Conversion factor |
|---|---|
| Wood in the rough, whether or not stripped of bark or sapwood, or roughly squared | 2.0 |
| Wood sawn or chipped lengthwise, sliced or peeled, whether or not planed, sanded or finger-jointed, of a thickness exceeding 6 mm | 2.5 |
| Veneer sheets and sheets for plywood, (whether or not spliced) and other wood sawn lengthwise, sliced or peeled, whether or not planed, sanded or finger-jointed, of a thickness not exceeding 6 mm | 2.0 |
| Wood (including strips and friezes for parquet flooring, not assembled) continuously shaped (tongued, grooved, rebated, chamfered, v-jointed, beaded, moulded, rounded or the like) along any of its edges or faces, whether or not planed, sanded or finger-jointed | 2.5 |
| Particle board and similar board of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not agglomerated with resins or other organic binding substances | 1.5 |
| Fibreboard of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not bonded with resins or other organic substances | 1.7 |
| Plywood, veneered panels and similar laminated wood | 2.5 |
Do I need to lodge a return and make a payment?
The importer of the forest industries product must submit information and pay the import charge to the Department of Home Affairs.
Information about how to pay your import charge invoice is available on the ‘Paying invoices to the department’ webpage on the Department of Immigration and Border Protection website.
Exemptions from the forest industries product import charge
The forest industries product import charge is not payable by a person for a financial year if the total amount of forest industries products import charge, export charge or levy that a person would be liable to pay in a financial year amounts to less than $330.