Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The deadline has passed for the Environment Ministry to complete a regulation vital to streamlining a muddled bureaucracy on environment licenses for businesses, prompting the office to resort to an alternative plan that critics say "weakens the spirit of the environment law".
The 2009 Law on Environment Protection and Management stipulates the ministry must issue 12 supporting government regulations to make the law effective.
One of the most eagerly awaited regulations was to revamp environment permits for businesses. The regulation would vastly simplify the process of obtaining a permit, by condensing 12 separate licenses into a single permit, and thereby facilitate monitoring.
Environmental activists lauded the concept, saying it would prevent businesses from starting to operate on a concession without an environmental permit, a practise that has been common in recent times.
But the ministry has reported it has been facing difficulties coordinating and merging several government institutions, including regional ones, to implement the change.
On Wednesday, a ministry official said the office had produced a new strategy – require business people to apply for separate licenses related to environmental issues in addition to securing an environmental permit.
If a businessman wants to open a business in Karawang, West Java, for example, an environment permit could be issued by the regional administration, but the company would still need to attain a license from the Environment Ministry to dump hazardous waste into the sea.
"If we want to have a single permit, we must first change some existing regulations," deputy minister for compliance Sudarijono said.
The 2009 Environment Law stipulates that a business license cannot be issued without an environment permit.
The ministry has come under pressure, mainly from environmentalists, to issue the government regulation on the environment permit. Activists believe that a unified environment permit would help strengthen monitoring to prevent and control environmental damage.
The environment law also requires the ministry to issue 11 other government regulations on Oct. 3 at the latest. As of Wednesday, the ministry had issued none.
Sudarijono said part of the problem was that the central government and local administrations had different authorities to issue different permits, all of which had to be unified to create a single permit.
Regents and mayors have the authority to issue waste water disposal permits, but the Environment Ministry has the authority to issue permits relating to hazardous waste management.
The 12 licenses a new business must secure before operating refer to disposal of liquid waste into water or water sources, temporary storage of hazardous water, collecting hazardous waste, processing hazardous waste, disposing liquid waste into the seas and other areas.
Law expert Asep Warlan Yusuf said the ministry's new plan, which effectively dropped the single permit concept, clashed with the principles of the environment permit as defined by the law.
Indonesian Center for Environment Law executive director Rhino Subagyo said the plan violated the spirit of the law. "The fear is it would lengthen bureaucracy and inflict high costs on business people wanting to secure permits, but would not uphold the law's spirit of preventing and controlling environmental damage," he said.