BPDP Palm Oil has the right to appoint a surveyor

President Joko Widodo signed this presidential regulation on 15 March 2016 and it has been effective since its enactment date. One of the new provisions in this presidential regulation is a matter regarding the authority of the Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP) to appoint a surveyor to conduct verification or technical investigation for export levy payment from oil palm plantation businesses. ALSO READ BPDP Oil Palm disburses plant rejuvenation funds BPDP CPO allocates Rp 33 billion for forests The surveyor's verification and technical investigation results are outlined in a surveyor report. `The Oil Palm BPDP appoints the surveyor after coordinating with the Ministry of Trade (Kemdag),` as stated in the presidential regulation as quoted from the Cabinet Secretariat (Setkab) website. In addition, the government has also changed the Oil Palm BPDP Executive Committee membership by including the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) and the Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). Other members that have joined include the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Industry, and the Minister of Trade. According to Nurlaila Nur Muhammad, the Director of Agriculture and Forestry Product Exports of the Ministry of Trade (Kemdag), a surveyor is very important in the levy funds from oil palm plantation businesses. This is because the levy amounts vary for each oil palm derivative product. Although the presidential regulation has only recently been issued, in reality verification of levy funds from oil palm plantation businesses using surveyors has been ongoing since 2015. `This policy is only a slight revision because the levy mechanism has not changed,` Nurlaila told KONTAN on Monday (11/4). Thus far, only one company has become the surveyor, PT Sucofindo (Persero) because it has been assessed as fulfilling the requirements that have been set. Nurlaila also promised that all surveyor payments will be covered by the Oil Palm BPDP so exporters will not need to spend additional costs in the oil palm export process. Dadan Kusdiana, Director of Fund Distribution at the Oil Palm BPDP, explained that although from the very beginning of the oil palm plantation fund levy there has been verification conducted by a surveyor from Sucofindo, there are some differences after this policy was issued. The difference is that in previous regulations, the surveyor was part of the export process that was under the Ministry of Trade's authority. As a result, it is not surprising that the Ministry of Trade directly appointed Sucofindo, which is a state-owned company. Well, after this presidential regulation was issued, the surveyor's duties are more specific; they are to verify the amount of export levies. The Oil Palm BPDP also has the authority to appoint the surveyor, with coordination still done with the Ministry of Trade. Even so, Dadan said that it is very likely that the BPDP Oil Palm will continue its cooperation with Sucofindo. `We have been contractually bound for one budget year,` he explained. Although the payment will be covered directly by the Oil Palm BPDP, Dadan admitted that he does not know in detail the amount of the budget that has been provided to pay this surveyor. Sucofindo has not yet provided any information about this. Heru Riza, Sucofindo's Commercial Director I, did not respond to KONTAN's calls or messages. Reporter Adisti Dini Indreswari Editor Dupla KS http://industri.kontan.co.id/news/bpdp-sawit-berhak-tunjuk-surveyor