Indonesia: Pro-Tobacco Groups to File Judicial Review Against New Regulation

Source from:  Jakarta Globe  01/18/2013

Two pro-tobacco groups on Thursday said they were preparing to fight a tobacco control regulation signed into law by the president last week.

The Indonesian Tobaco Growers Association (APTI) and the National Coalition for Saving Kretek (Cigarettes), or KNPK, were preparing to file a judicial review against Government Regulation No. 109 of 2012 on the Control of Addictive Substances in the Form of Tobacco Products, their executives said.

KNPK Coordinator Ahmad Zulvan Kurniawan claimed that the government regulation was negatively affecting trade and threatening the livelihood of Indonesian tobacco farmers.

"We will file a demand for a judicial review to the Supreme Court as soon as possible," Ahmad said.

He added that some six million tobacco farmers and some 12 million other people whose source of income depends on tobacco, such as clove growers and cigarette factory workers, were threatened by the regulation. 

One of the immediate impacts of the new bylaw is a delay in the issuance of tobacco purchase quotas by factories for the 2013 harvest season. This, he said, could cause anxiety and uneasiness for tobacco growers and the cigarette industry.

The purchase quotas are usually released in early January.

"Factories or industries do not want to come out with their dry tobacco purchase quotas because they cannot yet foresee the immediate impact of the government regulation," Ahmad explained.

Putu Oka, the chairman of the Bali chapter of the APTI, said that farmers usually prepare seeds for planting in March, but this year they can't because they don't know how many seeds to prepare.

"There are more than 800 hectares of land in Bali already projected for use as productive tobacco land," Oka said.

The tobacco industry, he added, was still observing what the impact of the government regulation would be on the market and whether it would reduce demand or not.

"Only after they analyze the situation, the cigarette industry will come out with its need quota that will be handed to the farmers," he said.

"But until now, the purchase quotas are not yet out," Oka said. 

Last year, 2.5 tons of dry tobacco leaves were ordered by a number of large cigarette producers form Bali tobacco farmers. Enditem