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Regional transport aid
Regional transport aid is a local political grant that aims to stimulate refinement within the industrial life in North Sweden and to compensate for the cost disadvantages due to long transport distances.
Transport aid may be granted companies for transporting goods to and from the four northernmost provinces.
The transport allowance is governed by the Regulation of regional transport aid (SFS 2000:281) and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth´s regulations (TVFS 2009:2).
Basic terms
The support area includes the four provinces of Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Jämtland and Västernorrland.
The grant may be submitted to the freight payer for domestic transportation by rail, commercial traffic on road or at sea. Also international transport can be included in the application, however, given a transport only for the carriage undertaken in Sweden.
Transport distance should exceed 401 km.
Outbound transport aid may be given for shipments from the support area if the goods are full -or semi-finished products that have undergone significant processing in the support area.
Ingoing contribution is admitted for transport of raw material and intermediate goods that will undergo significant, processing at the recipient in the support area. However, for the contribution to be provided, the product needs to be processed within one of the following industries:
- Textile, apparel, leather and leather products,
- Paint industry,
- Pharmaceutical industry,
- Detergent and toilet preparations industry,
- Rubber products industry,
- Plastic products,
- Porcelain and ceramics industry,
- Glass and glass products industry,
- Manufacturing,
- Musical instrument industry,
- Sport goods industry
Sectors and goods
Some goods are excluded from the outbound transport aid. Aid for outbound transport is not paid for transportation of the following items:
- Salt, sulfur, earth and stones, gypsum, lime and cement ;
- Ores, slag and ash,
- Mineral solid fuels,
- Mineral oils and bituminous substances, distillation, mineralsolids of the mineral oils,
- Round timber of any kind,
- Pulp wood
- Charcoal wood, fuel pellets, firewood and split wood, chips, edgings, sawdust and shavings,
- Paper pulp,
- Paper and paperboard
- Iron and steel products from iron, steel and metal, and iron and steel products as beams, rods, plates and flat sheet of iron and steel wholesalers and other companies,
- Other metals and metal alloys,
- Scrap or waste of other kinds,
- Second- hands goods
Amount of aid
The contribution is calculated from the transport distance and a rate of grant in percent due to the location of the production site.
The rate of contribution is 5 percent lower for ingoing transports than the grant for outbound transports.
Applications and decisions
Application for transport aid is made for each calendar half. Application must be received by the Swedish Growth Agency no later than three months after the calendar half that the application concerns.
You can read more about the regional transport aid in swedish.
Suggestion: Decrease outbound transport grants by 5 percentage
The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth received in the appropriaton directions for 2024 ”to review the forecast model for the transport grant order to increase the reliability and shall also propose a reduction in the grant levels for outbound transport to be in accordance with the EU´s legislation on group exemptions from the state aid rules. (GBER)”
The final report has been submitted to the Government Offices. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth proposes a reduction in the grant levels for outbound transports by five percentage. A reduction of five percentage would equate the aid for the outbound transport grant with level for the inbound transport allowance.
The proposal to reduce the level of the outbound transport is also in line with the results of the latest government assignment that the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth had in 2023. That report presented that outbound transports no longer entailed higher additional costs than inbound transports. The report also showed that the transport cost situation for companies in the grant area is generally worse than for companies outside the grant area.
Companies in the grant area have an additional cost for transport compared to companies outside the grant area.
Decisions on grant levels for the transport grant are made by the Government. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth cannot answer whether the government will make a decision on changed support levels for the outward transport. If the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth is given new information about grant levels for the transport grant, it will be published on this website.