Twelve forest concessionaires fined US$6.8m

JAKARTA (JP): The twelve forest concessionaires that failed to pay mandatory forest royalties and reforestation fees last year will be required to pay a total of US$6.8 million in fines, a government official says.

Director General of Forest Utilization Titus Sarijanto said on Thursday that Rp 12.8 billion (US$5.7 million) of the fines will go to forest royalties and $1.1 to reforestation funds.

Titus was quoted by Antara as saying that the number of negligent concessionaires last year, which operate in nine provinces, is twice that of 1993.

Six other companies, he said, were also found to have acquired illegally-cut timber.

The news agency, identifying the companies only by their initials, said the 12 negligent companies include PT JM in Maluku, PT ST in Jambi, PT BR in West Kalimantan, PT SM and PT TY in East Kalimantan, PT SR in West Java, PT KT in East Java, PT DS and PT AB in South Kalimantan and PT MM and PT KG in Central Kalimantan.

According to government regulations aimed at maintaining forest sustainability, forest concessionaires must contribute reforestation fees, which currently range between $10.50 and $20 per cubic meter, and pay forest royalties, which reach up to Rp 255,000 per ton depending on the type of wood.

Titus said that "most of the companies" have already paid their fines, but declined to mention their names.

Meanwhile, the six companies that acquired illegally-cut timber and also failed to pay the forest fees, he said, include PT BI and PT BR in West Kalimantan and PT IK in Riau.

In 1993, the six companies had to pay a total of Rp 3.3 billion in fines for the illegal wood, plus Rp 821.3 million in mandatory forest royalties and $825,000 in reforestation fees.

Titus said all the companies have already paid their duties for that year.

He explained that these companies violated regulations by accepting timber which was not equipped with the necessary logging documents, or they deliberately filled in the documents with incorrect data.

The companies, he said, may have also received more logs than they needed for their timber industry, which can be calculated by comparing their total production with the total number of logs declared by the companies.

They may have also neglected to pay their reforestation funds and forest royalties on time, Titus added.

He said that his office would continue to punish negligent concessionaires and would give "special attention" to those which frequently violated government regulations. (pwn)