PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – President Joko Widodo convened a meeting on palm oil issues with several ministers from the Kabinet Indonesia Maju on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, at Istana Merdeka in Jakarta.
Mahfud Md, the Coordinator Minister for Politics, Legal, and Security, stated in the official statement released after the meeting that the government had devised various legal alternatives to address companies that violated regulations in the palm oil plantation sector in Indonesia.
According to Mahfud Md, the first alternative is to resolve these issues by imposing administrative fines and ensuring compliance with all terms and conditions. If companies continue to violate regulations and remain uncooperative beyond the specified time limit, which is until November 2023, they will face criminal charges.
“For illegal palm oil plantation activities, administrative fines will be imposed, and the companies will be required to compensate for the losses incurred by the country through these fines,” Mahfud said, as stated in the official statement provided to Palmoilmagazine.com on Tuesday, September 26, 2023.
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Mahfud also explained that the non-cooperative companies would get into criminal sue. The charge would count not only the losses for the country but also the economic losses for the country.
“Experts would count the economic losses for the country, for instance, how much loss would the companies get from illegal palm oil plantations? We would count everything. Then the environmental damages in the country, how much would the company pay for? Everything would be paid by the companies,” Mahfud said.
He also told that the government identified some companies that should solve the issues about (illegal) palm oil cultivation. The government would take the Attorney to get criminal aspects and involve Badan Pengawasan Keuangan dan Pembangunan (BPKP) to calculate the losses of the country.
“The government’s financial losses should be legally managed, how much the taxes would be, the fine? About the losses for the country, how much the companies got? The numbers could be Rp 42 trillion? We calculated everything,” Mahfud said. (T2)
