TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-A total of 147 companies proven burning forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan will be sanctioned. However, the Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya will sanction four companies by revoking and freezing their licenses. "They have utilization of forest products permits, we will announce [the names] later,” she said at the Ministry of Economic Affairs office on Monday, September 28.
Of the 147 companies allegedly set fire to the forest, 139 were investigated by the Ministry of Environment. The rest are the findings by the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture teams. According to Siti, most of these companies are oil palm, rubber, and acacia plantations. Besides revoking licenses, Siti proposed that the arsonists are required to pay a special tax. Currently, she said, the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy and the Ministry of Finance are calculating the value of taxes to be paid.
Minister for Agrarian Affairs Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, stated that they will cooperate with the Government of Singapore to identify and prosecute companies causing fires, because there are allegations that companies owned by citizens of neighboring countries. The cooperation is conducted as Indonesia and Singapore have ratified the trans-boundary haze pollution regulation. In the regulation, said Ferry, Singapore can sue companies that burn the forest.
"And vice versa, if the company is owned by citizens of the land burners Singapore, Indonesia can sue," he said.
Environment Ministry warned the six provinces hit by drought that they could be affected by severe haze. The six provinces areWest Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, Maluku, West Sulawesi and North Sulawesi.
PRAGA UTAMA | ANANDA TERESIA | RIYAN NOFITRA (PEKANBARU)