The Contribution Of The Palm Oil Industry To The Big State Budget But To Small Regions

Palm oil (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

EAST BELITUNG - The regional government (Pemda) of East Belitung Regency, Bangka Belitung Islands asked the central government to increase the value of the profit sharing fund (DBH) from the contribution of the palm oil sector. This request departs from the current DBH which is considered too small.

East Belitung Regent Burhanudin said his area only received an oil palm DBH in 2023 with a value of Rp. 8.7 billion. Then, in 2024 it is worth Rp. 7.68 billion. The total amount of DBH obtained by East Belitung Regency is Rp. 16.38 billion.

According to Burhanudin, the transfer of DBH from the central government is relatively small when compared to the contribution of palm oil in East Belitung to the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).

There are nine palm oil companies in East Belitung Regency. One of them is PT Sahabat Mewah & Makmur, a subsidiary of PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya (ANJ) Tbk.

"The contribution from East Belitung to the APBN is quite large. Just one company contributes to paying taxes, both the export tax sent to the APBN is quite large, trillions of money. Only the return of this village is small," he said at the Palm Oil Conference Press Tour for the State Budget and the Economy, Thursday, August 29.

Burhanudin said that the DBH received by East Belitung Regency in the two years was not enough to repair damaged roads due to being crossed by palm oil transport trucks.

"So this palm DBH fund already has technical instructions given by the central government to be implemented in the regions. It's just that to make a road, if the road is 10 km, what can be built may be 2 km. Because with a little funds, it's impossible to fully build the road," he explained.

For your information, East Belitung Regency itself is an area that produces palm oil. Currently, the total area of oil palm plantations in East Belitung Regency reaches 62,064.67 hectares (Ha).

This amount already includes private plantations covering 49,682.64 Ha. Then, plasma plantations or partnerships amounted to 6,519.38 Ha and 5,862.65 Ha people's plantations.

Meanwhile, the total production of palm oil fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in East Belitung Regency reached 1,019,051.75 tons. As for the production of crude palm oil (CPO) as much as 203,810.35 tons.