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Government aims to certify all state land by 2022
The Finance Ministry expects all government land to be certified by 2022 in an effort to protect state assets from legal disputes and to maximize their use for financial purposes
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span>The Finance Ministry expects all government land to be certified by 2022 in an effort to protect state assets from legal disputes and to maximize their use for financial purposes.
According to the ministry, 46,725 tracts of land covering about 275,000 hectares — more than three times the size of Singapore — have not been certified.
“There are many state assets that are currently being disputed, and it could [all] be resolved if we have proper ownership certificates,” the ministry’s state assets director, Encep Sudarwan, said on Friday at a press briefing.
Aside from preventing land disputes, certifying state land was also necessary to enable the ministries or agencies that owned them to use the land for purposes such as collateral for raising funds.
The ministry has set a progressive target, with 15,426 state lands to be certified this year and 21,500 additional tracts to be certified by 2021.
The ministry is working with the National Land Agency (BPN) through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to accelerate the certification of state land for certifying the remaining 46,725 land tracts by 2022. It is also coordinating with other ministries and agencies to prepare sanctions for any delays in the process.
“We have signed an MoU with the BPN to achieve this year’s target. If the agency fails to achieve it, then there could be sanctions waiting,” Encep told The Jakarta Post.
Sulawesi Island is the primary target of the 2020 state land certification program with 4,488 state land tracts, followed by Java with 3,881 tracts and Kalimantan with 3,659 tracts. The remaining land tracts are located in other regions.
“This plan is a challenging breakthrough to ensure administrative compliance,” said Encep.
While the ministry is focusing on certifying existing government lands and other assets, the State Asset Management Agency (LMAN) is spending big to acquire lands for national strategic projects (PSN).
The LMAN has spent Rp 47.9 trillion (US$3.5 billion) since its inception in 2016 on its plan to acquire 113 million hectares of land by Feb. 7 for 72 PSNs.
Of the total, Rp 42 trillion were spent to procure land for toll roads, Rp 3.3 trillion for dams, Rp 1.1 trillion for railways, Rp 486 billion for a seaport and Rp127 billion for irrigation infrastructure.
“We work to help the government’s infrastructure development projects by acting as the paying agent during the land acquisition process,” said LMAN procurement and funding director Qoswara.
Despite the large figure, the LMAN has spent far below its 2016-2019 budget of Rp 91.2 trillion on land for PSNs.
For 2020, the agency has allocated Rp 9.72 trillion for public procurement and land development.
“The 2020 budget allocation will be used to acquire land for toll road projects, dam and irrigation development, and railway construction. However, the largest portion [of the budget] is for toll road [projects],” he said. (mpr)
