Depok Plans to Increase Groundwater Tax Exponentially
Translator
Ricky Mohammad Nugraha
Editor
Petir Garda Bhwana
Rabu, 17 Juli 2019 09:52 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Depok City Administration plans to exponentially increase its groundwater tax from Rp500 to Rp4,000 for every cubic meter in order to protect the area’s groundwater supply and prevent over-extraction.
Head of Depok City’s regional financial board (BKD) Nina Suzana says the current ground water tax in the region is only Rp500 per cubic meter.
“It will be increased starting on August to the level of Rp4,000 per cubic meter,” said Nina to Tempo on Tuesday.
Nina explained that the region has 139 business entities that use groundwater and voiced her hope on seeing the increased tax move industries’ water consumption from groundwater to that provided by state tap-water company (PDAM).
She says that the new tax is based on a number of academic studies however, it is still far from what PDAM charges for their water products of Rp10,500 per cubic meter. “But this is an early step to switch industries from using groundwater in the future,” said Nina.
