14 timber companies lose concessions
14 timber companies lose concessions
JAKARTA (JP): The government has revoked the logging
concessions of 14 timber companies after they failed to pay
overdue reforestation fees by April 1, Minister of Forestry and
Plantations Muslimin Nasution said on Tuesday.
Muslimin said the number was larger than the nine he initially
reported to President B.J. Habibie last week.
The nine companies, which controlled 972,100 hectares of the
country's forest areas, have failed to pay debts amounting to Rp
47 billion.
"However, our latest data shows that 14 concessionaires have
failed to meet the deadline. So we'll revoke the other five too,"
he announced.
He said his decree on the annulment of logging concessions of
the recalcitrant timber firms would be issued in the next two or
three days.
Muslimin said timber companies had been given a three-month
deadline from January to settle their reforestation fees and
forest royalty debts, but there had been no response.
"Those timber companies were given a warning and a 2 percent
fine per month has been imposed on them since January. Since they
failed to pay their debts before April 1, their logging contracts
have been revoked," he said.
Director General of Forest Utilization Waskito Soerjodibroto
said that unpaid reforestation fees reached more than Rp 137
billion (US$16.1 million) as of the end of March.
He refused to name the companies whose concessions were being
revoked, saying that the government would reveal their identities
after the decree on revocation was issued.
He divulged that the debtors were timber companies operating
in East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Maluku and Irian Jaya.
He said PT Prabu Alaska, a timber firm operating in Irian
Jaya, and another company operating in Kalimantan which was
linked to Anthony Salim, the son of tycoon Liem Sioe Liong, has
protested the termination of their logging concessions, saying
they had already settled their debts.
"We are investigating it. If they settled their debts before
April 1, we'll have to cancel the revocation of their logging
rights. But if payment was after the deadline, then they will
lose their licenses for good," he said.
Waskito said it was possible that the two timber companies did
not pay off their debts through one of the several banks
appointed by the ministry to handle payments, causing funds
transferred to the government's account to arrive after the
deadline.
Reforestation fees are mandatory fees imposed by the
government on forest concessionaires to ensure forests are
managed in an environmentally sustainable manner. The size of the
fee depends on the volume and type of timber felled.
Since April 1 last year, the government has accounted for
reforestation funds collected from timber companies as nontax
receipts in the state budget. Previously, the funds were
transferred to the forestry ministry's bank account and its
allocation was governed by presidential decree. (gis)