Jakarta – Finance Deputy Minister Suahasil Nazara said that the government has established the palm oil task force (Satgas Sawit), which is mainly aimed to improve the governance of the Indonesian palm oil industry.

Suahasil said that the Satgas Sawit is led by Maritime and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Padjaitan and he himself was appointed as deputy chairman who will function to manage its daily operations. “The palm task force is assigned to improve the governance of our palm oil industry. It includes to ensure their legal compliance and the state income from taxes and non-tax state income from the palm oil industry,” Suahasil was quoted by Antara as saying on Monday, 17 April 2023.

He said that the finance ministry’s tax directorate general has been continually renewing the data on Indonesian oil palm plantations. The new data will be later used for the improvement of governance in the Indonesian palm oil industry and also other plantations of other commodities.

“This will not be aimed merely to raise taxes, but also for the improvement of governance of the oil palm plantations, and other plantations of other commodities. But of course the palm oil is very important for Indonesia. We keep monitoring its prices at global market as it affects the state income from taxes and the non-tax state income for our country,” he said during a press conference on state budget (APBN) of April 2023 in Jakarta on Monday.

The establishment of the Satgas Sawit is based on the presidential decree (Keppres) No.9/2023 on the task force to improve the governance of palm oil industry and optimizing the state income, which was applied on 14 April 2023. Based on the Keppres, the tenure of the Satgas Sawit will be from 14 April 2023 to 30 September 2024. (*)

Source: Analisadaily.com