LaNyalla Mattalitti Reminds of Plantation Holding Plans That Collide to PP 26/2021 and the Monopoly Law

LaNyalla Mattalitti reminded that the merger of Plantation SOEs does not violate the Antimonopoly Law. (Spc)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the DPD RI AA LaNyalla Mattalitti reminded the Ministry of BUMN to be careful in plans to merge several subsidiaries under PT Perkebunan Nusantara (Holding Perkebunan) into three main business entities. Because this action has the potential to violate statutory regulations.

This action is certain to violate Government Regulation (PP) Number 26 of 2021 and has the potential to violate Law Number 5 of 1999 concerning Prohibition of Monopoly Practices and Unfair Business Competition. "I remind you not to force this plan, because violating the rules will result in sanctions, up to the level of revocation of business permits," stressed LaNyalla.

Merger of State-Owned Enterprises

As reported, the Ministry of BUMN, through the Plantation Holding, plans to carry out corporate action in the form of a merger process for BUMNs that run plantation businesses. This corporate action is divided into three parts, namely the formation of a Sugar Factory Sub-Holding called PT Sinergi Gula Nusantara (PT SGN) which has been running for two years, a Palm Oil Sub-Holding (Palm Co) and aneka Crops & Asset Management Sub-Holding (Supporting Co) .

However, the formation of Palm Co and Supporting Co which manage onfarms (HGU plantations) violates Government Regulation Number 26/2021 concerning the Implementation of Agricultural Businesses, especially Articles 2 and 3 which regulate the maximum area limits for land use for plantation businesses.

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

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

In line with Palm Co, Supporting CO which is a combination of PTPN I, II, VII, VIII, IX, Ha post-merger. Meanwhile, the regulatory limit is a maximum of 193,000 Ha.

"For the rubber commodity, for example, the maximum land area for a plantation company is only allowed to be 23 thousand hectares, but with the merger, Supporting Co will have 127,856 hectares. "It's clearly a violation of the rules," said LaNyalla Mattalitti in Jakarta, Wednesday 1 November.

With the amount of land exceeding the maximum limit of PP 26/2021, continued LaNyalla, state-owned plantation businesses will be riddled with cartelization practices. Apart from that, it will have a negative impact on healthy business competition because the plantation business will only be monopolized by one party.

“My advice is clear, don't violate the rules and regulations. The government through BUMN must set a good example, because that is part of good governance and clean government. "In fact, on the contrary, it would be better for PTPN's performance to be improved," he said.

LaNyalla Mattalitti also received information regarding the performance of the Sugar Factory Sub-Holding called PT Sinergi Gula Nusantara (PT SGN) which has been running for the past two years. Where the factory grinding schedule in some cases is actually completed in October. Whereas previously, the mill closed in November. This means that the performance is not getting better.