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)