TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had uncovered the illegal practice of marking down the weight of fishing boats in a number of ports. Pahala Nainggolan, KPK's deputy for prevention department, said that manipulating boat weight causes the state to lose non-tax revenues.
In Belawan, North Sumatera Utara, for example, 96 percent of the 72 boats that obtained sailing licenses in 2011-2012 are actually smaller in size that what they are claimed to be. KPK found similar cases in Juwana Pati, Batang, dan Tegal ports.
"There is a huge potential of state losses from the difference in fishing boats' gross tons," Pahala said on Wednesday last week.
The KPK also discovered that 70 percent of 1,836 boat owners and 1,404 fishery businesses are working without taxpayers' numbers.
On that basis, the Director General of Sea Bobby R. Mamahit issued a circular ordering all Offices of Technical Implementation Unit to re-measure the weight of fishing boats "to follow up on KPK's findings," he wrote in the circular dated July 10, 2015.
The Commission is also requesting that the government collect the non-tax revenue deficiency while repairing the system used to supervise the fishing industry.
"If the issue is not addressed, it could escalate into suspicion of corruption," Pahala said.
According to the KPK, the supervision of the fishing boat business is very bad as there is no uniformity in the measurement and monitoring systems used, evaluation of changes in size, and there is no system of identity information. In addition, there is no integration between the data of fishing vessels in the port master and in the licensor.
"There is also the case of bribery in licensing," said Pahala.
Indonesia gets more than 5 million tons of captured fish per year. But the non-tax revenues derived from the industry have remained stagnant since 2009 at Rp100 billion to Rp150 billion per year. In 2015, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs set the on-tax revenue target at Rp578 billion, but as of October only Rp66.36 billion had been collected.
Narmoko Prasmadji, Director General of Fisheries, admitted that the fishing boat sector has been in chaos for years. According to Narmokko, this is caused by the separation of authority between the central and local governments in handling boat licensing process.
Boats weighing more than 30 GT must obtain permits from the central government and are mandated to pay fees for their fishery products' profit. Meanwhile, smaller boats are allowed to get clearance at the provincial level.
"In an attempt to deal with easier licensing process, boat owners downsized their ships," Narmoko said.
Another motive in manipulating boat weights, said Narmoko, is to obtain subsidized diesel. Presidential Decree No.191/2014 stipulates that vessels weighing 30 GT or more are not allowed to use subsidized diesel. As a result, ship owners manipulate the weight of their boats to be under 30 GT, so they can buy subsidized diesel. "Boat owners can make a lot of a profit [from this practice]," Narmoko said.
AGUS SUPRIYANTO | DEVY ERNIS
