Govt Needs to Revamp Palm Oil Licensing at Local Level

PALM oil stakeholders made recommendation for the government to revamp regulations and permits in palm oil sector, given the fact that there are many overlapping regulations at local level hampering palm oil development. Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) for Organization Affairs Kacuk Sumarto said there are a number of regulations handled at local level that need to revamp. For instance, regulations on retribution and levies that are contradictory with regulations issued by central government. Kacuk suggested all relevant interested parties to meet and discuss these issues in a bid to solve the problem. “It needs synchronization at local level conducted by central government as well as by KPK (Indonesia`s Corruption Eradication Commission),” he said at a year end dialog organized by Sawit Indonesia Magazine, (19/12/2018). Meanwhile, KPK recorded a number of overlapping permits between Rights to Exploit (HGU) with mining permits for at least 3.01 million hectares plantations. HGU permits for about 534,000 hectares of them overlap with Forest Timber Product Exploitation Permit on Planted Forest (IUPHHK-HTI) and HGU for 349,000 hectares of them overlap with Forest Timber Product Exploitation Permit on Natural Forest (IUPHHK-HA). Head of KPK’s Supervision Coordination Team Sulistyanto said KPK considers the situation. He said, KPK has found facts that there are some ineffective permit issuance that left legal uncertainty. “Local government and ministries had failed to coordinate with each other when they issued regulations,” he said. In that sense, KPK has authorized nine local coordinators in 34 provinces to monitor local regulations. For that reason, Director General of Plantation at Agriculture Ministry Bambang said that his institution is developing application named Siperibun, a plantation permit information system, in a bid to improve palm oil governance. Siperibun is deisgned for three purposes. Firstly, to integrate plantation business permit data and information on national scale. Secondly, to provide instrument for supervise and monitor plantation business permits. Thirdly, to provide information for ministries/government institutions, local governments, and the public. “We have recognized 1.380 permits issued for 2.121 businesspeople in 13 provinces and 97 regencies,” Bambang said.  (Source: Kontan)