KUCHING: TDM Bhd’s Indonesian subsidiary has been sanctioned by the Indonesian authorities and ordered to stop activities in about 900 hectares of oil palm plantation area damaged by fire recently.
TDM said its subsidiary PT Rafi Kamajaya Abadi (PT RKA) had received and accepted the decision of the governor of West Kalimantan regarding an administrative sanction (decree) dated Oct 4.
The sanction arose as a result of the fire incident, the company said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
The decree contains the following:
• PT RKA has to stop their activities at the affected areas of approximately 900 hectares burnt area for three years;
• PT RKA has to complete its fire prevention facilities and infrastructure within a period of 12 months from the date of the sanction, and
• PT RKA must submit a monthly report to the governor of West Kalimantan on the progress and improvement.
TDM said PT RKA is consulting its solicitors to file an application to the Administrative Court in Indonesia for a review of the decree.
“The company is also currently assessing the financial and operational impacts on PT RKA and the group arising from the sanction,” it added.
In responding to a Reuters report last month stating that the Indonesian authority has sealed off PT RKA plantation land after the fire, TDM admitted that some 1,201 hectares of PT RKA land had been affected by the fire.
It said the fire had been extinguished as at September 17, 2019.
According to TDM, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry officials visited the PT RKA’s affected areas on September 13, and that signboards indicating the
affected areas in three locations had been sealed off for investigation purposes were put up on the same day.
“The sealing off of the affected areas is a normal procedure by the Indonesian authority to ensure the affected areas are secured and the investigation carried out accordingly.
“From the beginning of dry weather in early August, PT RKA has been on high alert and has put in place measures to manage and control fire incidents in the operating areas. This includes maintaining equipped firefighting teams to deal with the dry weather, strong wind and the risk of fire,” said TDM.
It said PT RKA had been able to contained fires that had occurred in the affected area and had reported the fire incidents to the local authorities and police.
“PT RKA had been working and will continue to work closely with local authorities, fire brigade and villagers in monitoring hot spots and joint operations for fire prevention and fire fighting purposes.
PT RKA has allocated resources, including equipment and personnel, for surveillance and extinguishing of fires,” it added then.
TDM said it practises the Roundtable for Sustained Palm Oil (RSPO) principles and is strictly governed by the ‘No Burning’ policy that there shall be no use of fire in the preparation of new planting, replanting or any other developments.
Besides TDM, several other Malaysian palm oil companies, including Sime Darby, Kuala Lumpur Kepong and IOI, were also implicated in news reports after open fires were allegedly spotted in their plantations in Indonesia.
However, these companies had refuted the allegations.
The recent forest fires in Kalimantan and Indonesia was blamed for the cause of serious haze that had affected Kuching, Sri Aman and other towns in Sarawak.
