Jakarta, July 22 (Antara) - The government will ease the importation of industrial salt in order to overcome the current shortage of raw material or raw salt being faced by industries in the country.
To this purpose, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) will issue a ministerial regulation that will no longer make it necessary to obtain a recommendation in order to import salt.
Based on Law No. 7 of 2016 on Protection and Empowerment of Fishermen, Fish Breeders and Salt Farmers, a recommendation from the KKP must be obtained to import industrial and consumer salt.
Industries are currently facing a shortage of raw salt for industry. To overcome the problem, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, on Friday (July 14), held a meeting with Chief Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, and KKP Minister Susi Pudjiastuti to discuss the issue of industrial salt
One of the results of the meeting is that the Trade Ministry will no longer need a recommendation from the KKP before it can issue a license to industries to import industrial salt as part of the efforts to cope with the shortage of industrial salt.
"The KKP will issue a regulation where the importation of industrial salt will no longer need a recommendation from us," KKP Minister Pudjiastuti was quoted as saying by Tempo.Co. on Saturday (July 15).
Before Law No.7 of 2016 was issued, a recommendation for the import of consumer salt should be issued by the KKP while that for industrial salt by the Ministry of Industry. With Law number 7 of 2016, all recommendations for the import of consumer and industrial salt should be issued by the KKP.
However, the meeting with the vice president reached a decision that the Ministry of Industry will no longer need recommendations before issuing a license for the importation of industrial salt.
Hence, Minister Pudjiastuti said her ministry will temporarily not issue a recommendation in view of the decision.
However, she said, the policy will be effective only for the time being since the importation of industrial salt must be controlled so that it would not 'spill-over' to the consumer market and harm the interests of the country's salt farmers.
"This is only for the time being because (the shortage of salt caused) the price to be high," Minister Pudjiastuti was quoted as saying by mediaindonesia.com on Saturday (July 15).
The KKP minister said her ministry will discuss various matters with the Trade Ministry, the harmonized system for the importation of industrial salt, so that its imports would remain under control. The new regulations will also be temporarily effective. They are made to cope with the shortage of salt that causes the price to rise.
In the meantime, Trade Minister Lukita said his ministry had issued licenses to 26 companies doing business in various industrial fields, such as pharmacies, chlor alkali plant (CAP), and paper industries to import industrial salt.
It is forecast that the annual demand of the salt industry reaches 2.3 million tons. Indonesia still depends on imports to meet its need since domestic salt production is not yet adequate.
Trade Ministry's Director for import affairs Veri Anggriono said the demand for industrial salt by CAP industries this year is estimated to reach 2.2 million tons. CAP industries will obtain permits first for the importation of industrial salt.
"The Ministry of Trade will provide import permits for CAP industries first. Food and other industries are still under process," she was quoted by mediaindonesia.com as saying.
Data with the state-owned salt company, PT Garam, showed that the national demand for salt has reached 4.04 million tons per annum comprising 1.3 million tons of consumer salt and 2.74 million tons of industrial salt.
Of the salt imported for industry, 2.14 million tons was for chemical industry (CAP), one thousand tons for pharmacies, and 40 thousand tons for oil mining.
Last year, domestic salt production of just 144,009 tons accounted for a meager four percent of its three million tons target.
In the meantime, economist Dr James Adam who is a member of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said that in order to encourage salt importers, Trade Minister's Regulation No. 125 of 2015 should be revoked.
"It is urgent to revoke the trade minister's regulation not only because it aims to encourage salt importers but also because it contradicts Article 11, point 2, of Law No.7 of 2016," he said in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Wednesday (July 19).
He said the urgency is in line with the government's strategy on ways to control the import of salt, so that it would not be released into the consumer markets, which would harm the interests of the national salt farmers.
Moreover, the revocation of Trade Minister's Regulation No. 125 of 2015 is a must since the KKP will issue a regulation that will ease the issuance of industrial salt import permits by the Trade Ministry.***3***(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 22-07-2017 13:06 |
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