State forestry companies earn Rp 158b in profits
State forestry companies earn Rp 158b in profits
JAKARTA (JP): Six state-owned forestry companies gained Rp 158
billion (US$71.8 million) in unaudited after-tax profits last
year, an 8.2 percent increase over the previous year.
Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo told
journalists after reporting to President Soeharto here on
Saturday that the six forestry companies also contributed Rp 169
billion to the government's coffers in the form of taxes.
Djamaludin noted that the total assets of the companies --
Perhutani, Inhutani I, Inhutani II, Inhutani III, Inhutani IV and
Inhutani V -- reached Rp 944 billion. Most of the assets are in
the form of forests.
The state forestry companies serve as suppliers for a number
of plywood and pulp plants, all of which are owned and operated
by private companies.
The minister said he also reported to Soeharto on ways of
maintaining and preserving forests in Java. Forest coverage now
reaches only 19 percent of the island, far below the minimum
healthy level of 30 percent.
The government, in its effort to increase the size of forests
in Java, is promoting a riverbank regreening program through the
provision of loans to people interested in helping with the
reforestation.
Djamaludin said the government had agreed to lower the
interest rate on the loans -- taken from reforestation funds --
from 12 percent to six percent per annum for the riverbank
regreening program.
Another way to increase the forest coverage on the island is
encouraging people to plant land upon which rice and other crops
will not grow with locally specific trees such as meranti,
mahogany and teak.
Cement
The minister also said that President Soeharto had asked him
to conduct a comprehensive study on a 600-hectare teak forest in
Central Java, where PT Eraska Semen Indonesia plans to build a
new cement plant.
"We do want to help the development of the cement plant
because the government has projected that the country needs to
import cement until 1997," Djamaludin said.
The Ministry of Industry predicts that Indonesia will have to
import up to five million tons of cement and clinker -- a
substance used in the production of cement -- this year to cover
the wide gap between demand and supply.
Indonesia, annually hit by cement crises, badly needs the
establishment of new cement factories or the expansion of the
existing plants.
Eraska has the necessary license from the Investment
Coordinating Board to build a cement plant with an annual
production capacity of 700,000 tons at Juwangi village in
Boyolali district, Central Java. The plant is expected to start
commercial production in 1997.
"But, we have to see first if there is any negative impact on
the surrounding villages, or if the local forest can continue
serving as a water catchment site or not," Djamaludin noted.
He said his ministry, in cooperation with the Indonesian
Science Institute and the office of the State Minister of the
Environment, will soon conduct a study on the targeted forest.
Eraska's president, Tugiyono Makmoer, threatened to quit the
project if the government did not issue approval for the
exploitation of the teak forest by this month.
Tugiyono said his company had offered the Ministry of Forestry
a 1,200 hectare plot in exchange for the forest.
However, Djamaludin turned down the offer, saying that the
substitute land should be at least three times the size of the
forest.
He said approval of the use of forested areas in Java for
infrastructure and public facilities has to be given by the
President. And this can be done only after another plot of land
of the same size has been provided. The plot must be twice the
size for military and state industrial project. If the
replacement plot is to be used for other purposes, it must be
three times the size of the original plot. (rid)