Mondatory reforestation fees ruling reviewed
JAKARTA (JP): Mandatory reforestation fees and forest royalties must now be paid by forest concessionaires unless the concessionaires are integrated with wood-processing plants, Forestry Minister Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo says.
However, forest concessionaires integrated with wood- processing factories will still be allowed to process and pay the mandatory fees on a self-assessment basis, Djamaludin said, quoting Ministerial Decree No. 358 and 359/1996.
The decree has been in effect since July 8.
"A five-year evaluation has shown that the previous regulation -- Ministerial Decrees No. 271 and 272/1993, which allowed all wood-processing firms to self-process and self-assess their mandatory payments -- was severely violated by the firms," he said.
Djamaludin said the evaluation also shows that the technicalities of the previous regulations lacked detail, contained many loopholes and, at the same time, the government could not maintain a sound level of supervision and control.
Advantage
Many wood-processing firms which were not integrated with forest concessionaires took advantage of the situation by failing to pay the fees on time, Djamaludin said.
He said that during the January-May period of 1995, for example, the total amount of unpaid forest royalties and reforestation fees was Rp 29.7 billion (US$12.91 million), which reached Rp 33.5 billion for the corresponding period of this year.
Djamaludin said this amount accounted for 3 percent of the government's total earnings from the mandatory fees, which reach Rp 1.2 trillion a year on average.
He said the government will soon issue and publicize a list of wood-processing firms which are allowed to conduct self- assessments.
However, he said, companies that are not integrated with forest concessionaires but are capable of paying their fees responsibly may also be included on the list.
The list will be evaluated on a yearly basis, during which time negligent companies may be dropped and responsible ones added. (pwn)