30/09/2011 (Tempo Interactive) - The government has been urged to review state revenue from the forestry sector. Based on current calculations, from 2004 to 2010 the government has reportedly lost Rp169.797 trillion in unpaid taxes and illegal activity.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) analyst, Mouna Wasef, said that based on ICW’s research, the government should have earned Rp217.629 trillion from the forestry sector. However, it only earned Rp47.8 trillion from non-tax receivables, tax and export taxes.

“That’s a lot of financial loss and it must be stopped,” Mouna said yesterday.

According to Mouna, the financial losses resulted from the low price reference the government uses. The reference is no longer suitable to the price market, she said.

Moreover, the government does not calculate the loss from forest damages. Greenpeace campaigner, Zulfahmi, said the government was not serious or professional in terms of managing the forestry sector. This is indicated by the absence of a concrete policy to regulate forest conversions, he said.

A moratorium on forest conversion has been deemed unsuccessful at preventing forest damage. “The government has failed to improve overlapping forest permit issues,” he said, suggesting the government should review the forest conversion permit system.

The Forestry Ministry has withdrawn the Minister Regulation no.62/2011 on Guidelines for Plantation Forest Development which was implemented last month, said Forestry Ministry’s secretary-general Hadi Daryanto yesterday.

As such, palm oil cannot be planted in industrial plantation forest areas. Previously, the regulation created controversy as it was seen to benefit palm oil businessmen who had problems with their permits.