Govt expects Rp 740b from reforestation funds

JAKARTA (JP): The government had targeted to collect Rp 740 billion (US$87.5 million) in reforestation funds in fiscal 1998/1999, a minister said yesterday.

Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said the government targeted to collect Rp 740 billion in reforestation funds.

"The target of Rp 740 billion is much smaller than our annual revenue from reforestation funds in previous years. We had been collecting over Rp 800 billion in reforestation funds per year," he said after a media conference.

Reforestation funds collected in fiscal 1996/1997 totaled Rp 880.7 billion, up from Rp 809.6 billion in 1995/1996.

Djamaludin said last week the reforestation funds would be accounted for in the state budget in fiscal 1998/1999 as part of state revenue from nontax sectors.

At present, the reforestation funds are managed by the Ministry of Forestry, but are not accounted for in the state budget.

According to Presidential Decree No. 29/1990, reforestation funds collected from levies on forest concessionaires must be used to develop forests and rehabilitate land.

Djamaludin said he was optimistic the collected funds would surpass the government's target.

He said if timber companies had a working plan similar to last year's, there would be an increase of 20 percent in reforestation funds this year, compared to the figure last year.

He said the increase was due to a new tariff to collect reforestation funds, which had been charged in rupiah instead of U.S. dollars since Jan. 1.

"Before the currency crisis, we charged timber companies $16 per cubic meter of logs. At that time, the U.S. dollar rate was about Rp 2,400," he said.

"Now the tariff is set at Rp 48,000 per cubic meter. The new tariff is based on the calculation of $16 times the U.S dollar rate of Rp 3,000," he said.

But he said the increase in the amount of collected funds was also determined by wood demand in overseas markets.

Djamaludin said his ministry had proposed to the Ministry of Finance to revise the new tariff due to a further plunge of the rupiah's value against the dollar.

The rupiah plunged to a record low of 10,000 to the dollar in Singapore and 9,700 in Jakarta yesterday. The currency has lost nearly 75 percent of its value against the dollar due to speculative attacks since early July last year.

"It will be hard for us to increase the tariff to collect reforestation funds, because demand for wood is currently sluggish," he said.

He said South Korea, one of Indonesia's main wood importers, had stopped buying Indonesian wood due to the current monetary crisis in the country.

Japan, the world's biggest importer of Indonesian wood, had also reduced their purchases due to the same reason, he said.

The monetary crisis, triggered by the de facto devaluation of the Thai baht in early July last year, has hit several Asian countries.

Djamaludin said the government had allocated Rp 420.4 billion in the proposed state budget to finance state-related activities overseen by his ministry. The amount increased 6 percent from Rp 394 billion allocated in the current state budget.

He said although the budget was considered tight, there would be no rescheduling of the ministry's projects. (gis)