Forestry and foreign exchange

Forestry and foreign exchange

From Media Indonesia

After reading a news story in Media Indonesia on July 28 titled New forestry minister should be able to develop sustainable forests, I would like to suggest the following.

The government has asserted that foreign exchange receipts from the forestry sector remain one of its main sources of income. Therefore, the government should take short-term steps, such as canceling the payment of the reforestation fund (DR) and forest resources royalty (PSDH) three years in advance, canceling the value-added tax on timber and the building and land tax (PBB) on forest concession areas as they are already included in the PSDH, eradicating illegal logging, preventing the smuggling of timber and prohibiting the export of logs. In the absence of speedy short-term steps, the bankruptcy of the forestry sector, about which the general chairman of the Indonesian Association of Forestry Companies (APHI), Adiwarsita Adinegoro, has expressed fear for, will become a reality.

Bankruptcy is imminent as long as the government shows dualism in its attitude to the forestry sector by letting it continue in the prevailing situation on the one hand but issuing unreasonable regulations on the other.

DEHEN BINTI

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan