BP Batam committed to only giving ready land to investors

The new management of the Batam Indonesia Free Zone Authority (BP Batam) has voiced its commitment to providing the best service to investors coming to Batam. For land, BP Batam will allocate only ready land so that investors are not burdened with land acquisition, which often proves problematic, especially when dealing with illegal land occupants.

The third deputy of the Batam Concession Body overseeing RC facilities concession, Eko Santoso Budianto, said in the future, BP Batam will transform its business model in terms of land acquisition for investment.

“BP Batam will not sell pictures anymore to investors. We won’t allocate land using the old system. We will clear land beforehand, and should there be any illegal occupants on the land, we are going to ask them to move first. When the allocated land is ready, investors can then come and build,” Eko said.

He added that this would help investors requiring land for investment ventures in Batam. They don’t need to be hassled by land acquisition and related other matters.

“The consequence is that leases will be higher, as the land given or allocated is ready,” he said.

This reform in the land allocation system is the commitment of BP Batam’s new management to improving its performance. It is a known fact that land acquisition often leads to various problems involving many parties.

Eko further said BP Batam was also reforming its system for the payment of annual mandatory authority money (UWTO). The reform will start with a name change, which is still under study.

“We will change the term, UWTO refers to money for land lease as part of non tax state revenue (PNBP),” said Eko.

BP Batam will also make a rate adjustment for land leases. The draft for the new rate will be submitted to the government through the Finance Ministry. While waiting for the government to issue a new regulation on the rate, payments for land leases will be put on hold.

“We have submitted the draft on the new rate, we cannot accept payment using the old rate. If we do, we will face legal implications,” Eko explained.

Eko said management realized that the payment halt may create the perception of stagnation in land acquisition services, which is one of eight authorities of BP Batam

“First, we need to define what people mean by stagnation. In land acquisition, there are eight matters to resolve. Out of these eight issues, only two are impacted by this new regulation,” Eko said.

He explained that related to the eight issues on land for investment, the new management had completed 990 recommendation documents and 1,095 legalized files. For transfer of rights permits, out of the 10,859 documents BP Batam has received, 10,586 of them are complete. The management has also finished processing 3,567 out of 3,672 transfer of title documents, as well as 1,086 out of 1,104 UWTO endorsement documents. (Based on August 2016 data)

“So, there is no stagnation. Based on the data we have, everything is running well,” Eko said.

Eko added that aside from UWTO payment, the system for new land allocation requests was also being revamped, as the previous system had created several problems. For instance, there has been overlapping land allocation involving land designated as part of a protected forest or for catchment area; and several findings made by the Development Finance Auditing Agency (BPKP).

“When the problem has reached this point, we cannot process the land allocation. We need to reform the system,” Eko cautioned.

source : thejakartapost
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