Forestry permits to be cut to reduce illegal levies<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Forestry will no longer issue
\nlicenses or notification letters for 12 forestry activities in an
\nattempt to eliminate illegal levies, according to a senior
\nofficial.<\/p>\n
Director General of Forest Utilization Titus Sarijanto said
\nWednesday that the licenses or notification letters were often
\nmisused to collect illegal levies from forestry ministries.<\/p>\n
\"I have instructed all heads of provincial offices to stop
\nissuing licenses in 12 forestry activities, which had been
\nmisused to charge illegal levies and have been responsible for
\nhigh costs in the industry,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Forestry companies were previously required to obtain licenses
\nor notification letters from the provincial office of the
\nministry to ensure that they abide by forestry regulations.<\/p>\n
But forestry officials have imposed a fee in return for the
\nletters or licenses required by the companies.<\/p>\n
He said the forestry companies will no longer be required to
\nobtain such letters in 12 activities such as log stock
\ninvestigation, site inspections, log measurement inspection, and
\ncutting inspection.<\/p>\n
But he said the ministry still maintained four notification
\nletters on a report of production output, logs transportation,
\nlogs examination and hard equipment examination.<\/p>\n
\"We maintain those letters because those activities need to be
\ninspected to avoid violations,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He added that although those activities would no longer
\nrequire licenses, the ministry would still perform a tight
\ninspection of such activities.<\/p>\n
Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said last
\nmonth that his ministry had found 16 illegal levies in the
\nforestry sector.<\/p>\n
Most of the illegal levies were imposed by officials from
\nprovincial forestry offices when they made site inspections at a
\nnumber of forestry firms or when they issued official letters for
\nthose firms.<\/p>\n
Such illegal levies were common to speed up business
\nprocedures with authorities, Djamaludin quoted some forestry
\ncompanies as saying.<\/p>\n
He stressed that there were only 11 legal levies outside taxes
\nimposed by his ministry, as stipulated by Government Regulation
\nNo.22\/1997.<\/p>\n
Titus also urged forestry companies and other players in the
\nforestry sector to report any illegal levies to his office.<\/p>\n
\"The Ministry of Forestry will not hesitate to punish any
\nministry official who is guilty of charging illegal levies to
\nforestry companies,\" he said. (gis)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/forestry-permits-to-be-cut-to-reduce-illegal-levies-1447893297",
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