IAW Highlights Potential Fiscal Burden Project Waste To Energy

JAKARTA Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW) questioned the involvement of PT Danantara Daya Nusantara in the waste management project into energy (Waste-to-Energy / WTE) which is considered to have the potential to burden state finances.

IAW Founder Secretary Iskandar Sitorus assessed that the WTE project regulated through Presidential Regulation Number 109 of 2025 actually shifted the responsibility of waste management from local governments to the central government through PLN and Danantara.

"This Presidential Regulation removes the tipping fee from the local government, but the costs are still there and eventually paid through PLN and APBN. The central government bears that the regions have lost control, the people are spectators," said Iskandar in Jakarta, Thursday, October 23.

According to IAW, this policy violates the principle of division of government affairs as regulated in Law no. 18 of 2008 concerning Waste Management and Law no. 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government.

IAW data also shows the findings of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) over the past two decades highlighting the weakness of waste management in the regions.

Iskandar assessed that the WTE project is prone to becoming a 'political business field', with a pattern similar to other infrastructure projects such as thelush fast train, namely BUMN guarantees, standby loans, and fiscal risks that lead to the state budget.

"PLN is forced to buy WTE electricity for three times the coal electricity, even though the Java 'Bali electricity capacity is already excessive. People's waste is burned, people's money is also burned," he said.

IAW calls this policy a form of neo-extractivism of economic constants that arise from public crises, not natural resources.

"If you want to build a true green economy, build governance, not the stove," concluded Iskandar.