Reforestation funds 'should be returned'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry and Plantations Muslimin
\nNasution said yesterday he would try to get back reforestry funds
\nused to buy shares of a company set up to finance domestic jet
\nmanufacturing.<\/p>\n
\"Reforestry funds should not be used for projects not related
\nto reforestation. God willing, we will get it back,\" Muslimin
\nsaid after giving an address at a meeting of timber and
\nplantation company executives.<\/p>\n
Since April 1, the government has accounted for reforestation
\nfunds, collected from timber companies, in the state budget as
\nnontax receipts. Previously, the funds were transferred into the
\nMinistry of Forestry's bank account and its allocation was
\ngoverned by presidential decree.<\/p>\n
In 1996, then-president Soeharto ordered the Ministry of
\nForestry to set aside Rp 23 billion from the interest of
\nreforestation funds to buy 10,000 shares of PT Dua Satu Tiga
\nPuluh (DTSP), a company set up in February 1996 to finance the
\nconstruction of the 100-seater N-2130 jet made by the state-owned
\naircraft manufacturer PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara
\n(IPTN).<\/p>\n
The shares were later transferred to the Bina Raharja
\nFoundation, a private institution established by retired civil
\nservants.<\/p>\n
Soeharto also ordered the ministry to use another Rp 400
\nbillion from the reforestry fund to help finance IPTN's
\noperations. The money was later converted into the government's
\nstake in the aircraft company.<\/p>\n
Soeharto is DSTP's chief commissioner, while former state
\nminister Saadilah Mursjid is its president.<\/p>\n
Muslimin said the ministry would also ask the state secretary
\nto give back Rp 100 billion in reforestation funds provided as a
\nloan to the People's Prosperity Savings (Takesra), a fund
\nestablished to help alleviate poverty.<\/p>\n
He added that the state secretary had yet to respond to his
\nrequest, but that Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and
\nPoverty Eradication Haryono Suyono had said Takesra had already
\ndisbursed the funds to its program participants through cheap
\nloans.<\/p>\n
Muslimin promised that the 1967 Forestry Law would be revised
\nto give ordinary people a better chance of benefiting from the
\ncountry's forest resources.<\/p>\n
\"The current system of forest management has yet to
\naccommodate small businesses, cooperatives and local people. So
\nwe need a better system to ensure that logging activities benefit
\nnot only large business groups,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said the 1967 Forestry Law was key to the revision of 138
\ngovernment and ministerial regulations and presidential decrees.<\/p>\n
\"I hope the draft of the revised law can be proposed to the
\nstate secretary by early July,\" he said. (gis)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/reforestation-funds-should-be-returned-1447893297",
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