Do Not Let The Plantation Holding Plan Even Collis PP 26/2021 And The Monopoly Law

Ministry of SOEs (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of SOEs is reminded to be careful in the planned merger of several subsidiaries under PT Perkebunan Nusantara (Holding Perkebunan) into three main business entities. Salah langkan, can potentially violate the laws and regulations.

The action is confirmed to have crashed into Government Regulation (PP) Number 26 of 2021 and has the potential to violate Law Number 5 of 1999 concerning the Prohibition of Monopoly Practices and Unhealthy Business Competition.

"I remind you that the plan is not forced, because the violation of the rules results in sanctions, up to the level of revocation of business licenses," said DPD Chairman AA LaNyalla Machmud Mattalitti, Wednesday, November 1.

Previously, the Ministry of SOEs through the Plantation Holding planned to carry out corporate actions in the form of a BUMN merger process that runs plantation businesses. The corporate action is divided into three parts, namely the establishment of a Sugar Factory Subholding called PT Sinergi Sugar Nusantara (PT SGN) which has been running for two years, Sub Holding Kelapa Sawit (Palm Co) and Sub Holding Aneka Plants & Asset Management (Supporting Co).

However, the formation of Palm Co and Supporting Co which manages onfarm (HGU Plantation) violates Government Regulation Number 26/2021 concerning Agricultural Business Administration, especially in Articles 2 and 3 which regulates the maximum area limit for land use for plantation businesses.

Palm Co, which will later merge PTPN managing oil palm plantations, namely PTPN III, IV, V, VI and XIII, will have a land area of 562,440 Ha after the merger, based on data from the Annual Report Company PTPN holding in 2022.

Meanwhile, in PP 26/2021 Article 3 Paragraph (1) letter a, it states that the maximum area of oil palm plantations is 100 ha. Meanwhile, Palm Co has an area of 5 times more than this rule.

In line with Palm Co, Supporting CO which is a combination and PTPN I, II, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIV which manages sugarcane commodities, coffee, tea, rubber, cocoa and tobacco will have an overall land area of 339,574 Ha after the merger. While the maximum regulatory limit is 193,000 Ha.

"Brubber commodities, for example. The maximum land area of a plantation company is only allowed for 23 thousand hectares, but with the merger, Supporting Co will have 127,856 hectares. It clearly hit the rules," he continued.

With the amount of land that exceeds the maximum limit of PP 26/2021, the plantation business owned by BUMN will be full of cartelization practices. In addition, it will have a negative impact on healthy business competition because plantation businesses will only be monopolized by one party.

"My advice is clear, don't hit the rules and regulations. The government through SOEs must set a good example, because it is part of good governance and clean government. On the contrary, it is better for PTPN's performance to be underperformed, improved," he said.