Construction Of Tobacco Products Industry Centers In Kudus Take Utilization Of The Regency Government Assets

Photo: Doc. Antara

JAKARTA - The government of Kudus Regency, Central Java, plans to utilize local government assets in realizing the construction of a tobacco products industry center (SIHT) after efforts to buy community land have not yielded results.

"Initially, we planned to buy land owned by the community with an area of about one hectare because the budget was also available," said Head of the Office of Industry, Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises in Kudus Regency, Rini Kartika Hadi Ahmawati in Kudus, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, December 7.

Previously, a project feasibility study (FS) from several prospective land candidates was purchased by the Kudus Regency Government.

Meanwhile, the prepared land acquisition budget is IDR 17.8 billion, which comes from funds for excise and tobacco products (DBHCHT).

The latest decision, the Kudus Regency Government will utilize regional assets with an area of 3.7 hectares in Jekulo District.

For readiness, all land utilization requirements documents are immediately prepared, including feasibility studies, the availability of wastewater treatment installations to physical development planning.

The previous plan was to build 25 warehouses for cigarette production. Meanwhile, in the land owned by the district government itself, for the initial stage, it was enough to build five warehouses according to their budget capacity.

He hopes that physical development can begin in 2023, so that it can be used as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the tobacco products industrial area (KIHT) in Megawon Village, Jati District, Kudus Regency, has limited capacity because there are only 11 warehouses and all of them are rented by small cigarette entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, the addition of three new warehouses is also not enough because small class cigarette entrepreneurs are on the waiting list to be able to take advantage of the cigarette production site, which has reached 17 entrepreneurs.

The presence of SIHT is certainly highly expected to support the economic recovery of the community after previously being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, considering that the warehouse rental rate is quite cheap and is a solution for class III cigarette producers who have limited capital in preparing production sites.