ONE-MAP POLICY TO IMPROVE BUSINESS, OVERLAPPING LAND

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Dec 11 (Antara) - Overlapping land use or even overlapping claim on land ownership is one of the main problems of land in Indonesia.          In order to resolve the problem, the government has launched a One-Map Policy (KSP), which is lauded by many parties as it would help improve investment climate in the country.          President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) launched a One-Map Policy Geoportal and 2018 National Infrastructure Development Progress Book at Bidakara Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday.         "With the KSP, the problem of overlapping land use can be solved," Jokowi noted. He remarked that the infrastructure development in various regions made him realize that in Indonesia there were too many cases of overlapping in land use.          According to the president, besides resolving overlapping land use problem, the KSP will also boost investment and improve business climate.          "In future, with the presence of a digital map, there is no need to issue a location permit. The location permit is not needed because everything would become clear," the president remarked when announcing the policy on Tuesday.

GOVERNMENT SEEKS TO IMPOSE PROGRESSIVE TAX ON IDLE LANDS

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 2 (Antara) - A lot of people practice speculative buying of lands to resell them for a big margin years later, but this practice has led to many plots of land staying idle.          Intensive infrastructure development such as roads, turnpikes and ports by the government encourages speculators to purchase lands near these projects with hopes that the land prices would certainly skyrocket in future.      Hence, the government is considering imposing a progressive tax on idle lands, in an effort to discourage speculative buying and to boost the utilization of lands for economic activities and other productive purposes.          Minister for Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning Sofyan Djalil believes that the imposition of progressive tax on idle lands will be useful to reduce speculative buying of lands.           "The idea behind imposing progressive tax is to eradicate speculative buying of idle lands, Djalil said on Monday (Jan 30). He added that the rising land prices lure speculators to purchase them. He added that the lands were in fact idle because they were neglected by their owners and thus become unproductive.

STOCKTAKING ON LAND ASSETS AND CERTIFICATION

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Nov 5 (Antara) - The central government is carrying out land certification throughout the country and encouraging regional administrations to make inventory on land assets.         Data collected through land stocktaking is intended to serve as a basis or data bank, which provides information on land matters such as the need for housing development, including the need for the government's one-million housing development program.         In Indonesia, there are 178 million hectares of land plots, but only about 46 percent of them have been certified. About 90 percent of the certified land plots are in urban areas while the remaining 30 percent are in villages. Therefore, the government is launching the land certification program across the country hoping that by 2025, all land plots would be certified.         According to Chief Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, the land certification is the backbone of the government's financial inclusive strategy because it would enable the people to obtain credits through the government's micro credit scheme (KUR).         "Actually, the KUR credit can be obtained by low-income people without any collateral; yet with certificates, people can get the KUR credits easily," Darmin said on Thursday (Nov 3).