Water fees and the water bill
The March 14 and March 15 editions of The Jakarta Post featured news on the water fees for farmers. It said that on March 14 a new draft of a government regulation was proposed, obliging farmers to pay for water used for irrigation. The following day, two legislators responded to the issue by vowing to reject this move as it is stipulated in the water resources bill the House of Represernatatives (DPR) has been deliberating on.
The fee that the farmers have to pay as stipulated in Article 7 (5), called the fee for the financial management of basin water resources for irrigation use, is the same as the fee for the irrigation water service (IPAIR) that farmers have to pay to their association.
The difference between the two fees is that IPAIR is paid in an irrigation scheme level while the former is paid in a basin water resources management unit, which is managed by an institution. The two fees are not a water charge if what is meant is a tax for using water.
The water charge as a tax for water utilization is stipulated in Law No.34/2000 on the amendment of Law No. 18/1997 on regional taxes and regional retribution, specifically Articles 2 and 2A. Both the water resources bill and the draft of the government regulation never talk about the water charges being a tax, except as a service fee or contribution. This is the first main misunderstanding concerning the water charge discourse nowadays.
The second misunderstanding is a perception that the water resources bill stipulates that there is an irrigation water charge. This perception may have come from a wrong conclusion on the implication of the water use right that is given to farmers as stipulated in articles 41 (1) and 41 (2). The noncommercial water use right will be granted to water use associations and the commercial water use right will be granted to agricultural enterprises in using irrigation water.
However, accepting the water use right, commercial or noncommercial, does not necessarily oblige or free someone from paying the water charge automatically. The water resources bill does not stipulate the relation of the water use right to the water charge as a tax. But it can be implicitly concluded from articles 80 (1) and (2) in the bill, in which it says all users of water, except for basic needs, will be obliged to pay management service fees.
We can be sure that farmers will not have to pay a water charge as a tax not from the bill, but from Law No. 34/2000, specifically in the explanation given in Article 2 (d), which states that there is no tax on water used for basic household needs or agricultural purposes. This principle should be integrated into the water resources bill.
KUSWANTO SA, Bogor, West Java