KLHK Reviews Transportation Business Sanctions That Make Air Pollution

Director General Of Environmental Law Enforcement And Forestry KLHK Ratio Ridho Sani (left)/ANTARA/Sugiharto Purnama

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) is reviewing the application of sanctions to people's transportation companies and goods that pollute the air in the Jabodetabek area.

"We are preparing legal steps for transportation businesses using a criminal law approach," said Director General of Environmental Law Enforcement and Forestry of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Ratio Ridho Sani at a press conference in Jakarta as reported by ANTARA, Friday, September 8.

Rasio said that his party used Article 100 as stated in Law Number 32 of 2009 concerning Environmental Protection and Management.

The article reads that everyone who violates the emission quality standards or quality standards for disorders will be sentenced to imprisonment for a maximum of three years and a maximum fine of IDR 3 billion.

"We have never used this article, but we will use this with the existing conditions. We have handled forest and land fires, how many articles have we used, including civil lawsuits," said Rasio.

Criminal acts can only be imposed if administrative sanctions have been imposed and have not been obeyed or violated more than once.

The sanction is given to every vehicle that has the potential to exceed quality standards. After imposing administrative sanctions, but transportation entrepreneurs still do not fix their vehicles, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) applies criminal legal sanctions.

"We do it to bus and truck transportation entrepreneurs, because we know a lot of buses and trucks emit black smoke," said Rasio.

Since August 17, 2023 until now, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has opened emission test services for motorized vehicle owners as an effort to monitor and control exhaust emissions produced by vehicles.

Secretary of the Directorate General of Pollution and Environmental Damage Control of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Tulus Laksono, said that every day there are 100 to 150 motorized vehicles conducting emission tests at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's office.

"It turned out that 33 percent of the two wheels did not pass, four-wheeled vehicles were about 13 percent who did not pass, and the bus was around 16 percent did not pass. On average, per day those who did not pass were 20 percent of the emission test activities carried out independently by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry", said Tulus.

Jakarta currently has 24.5 million motorized vehicles, the majority of which are motorcycles with a composition of 78 percent. The average growth of motorized vehicles per year is 5.7 percent or the equivalent of 1.2 million units and 6.38 percent of motorcycles or the equivalent of 1.04 million units.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry said that the cause of air pollution in Jabodetabek came from motorized vehicle smoke of 44 percent, 34 percent of Steam Power Plants (PLTU), and the rest were donated by the industrial sector.