Mandek Di Pemerintah, OJK Tetiba Bicara Pajak Carbon, Ada Apa?

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) is known to continue to prepare the implementation of the carbon exchange to support the government's initiative to set a carbon tax in an effort to tackle climate change. This was emphasized by the Chairman of the OJK Board of Commissioners Mahendra Siregar in the 45-year ceremony of the Indonesian Capital Market.

"OJK and the financial services industry are ready to support this initiative," he said in a press statement quoted by the editors on Wednesday, September 28.

According to Mahendra, the determination of carbon prices can provide incentives to reduce emissions and disincentively for companies that produce more than tolerated boundaries. He also stated that Indonesia's geographical condition, which has the third largest tropical forest in the world, will be its own advantage.

The reason is, with a tropical forest covering an area of 125 million hectares, Indonesia is estimated to be able to absorb 25 billion tons of carbon, not including mangroves and peat forests, so it is estimated to generate revenue of US$565.9 billion from carbon trading.

"This is where Indonesia can step up and take advantage of its advantage as a leader to use the carbon exchange initiative in providing alternative financing for the real sector," he said.

OJK hopes that regulations related to legal umbrellas regarding the authority to organize and operate carbon trading, especially through carbon exchanges, can be issued immediately so as to accelerate the goal of achieving a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) as well as the target of implementing net zero emissions by 2060.

"We must ensure that infrastructure devices are not only fit but also complete as well as a suitable monitoring mechanism for the carbon market so that they are in line with the national targets set in the NDC," he stressed.

For information, VOI noted that the implementation of the carbon tax so far remains unclear. In the initial plan, the agenda included in the Law on Harmonization of Tax Regulations (HPP) was originally scheduled to be rolled out on July 1, 2022.

In fact, the government through the Ministry of Finance hopes that this policy will become one of Indonesia's most innovative legal products and will be exhibited at the G20 Summit next November in Bali.