Government Offers Fiscal Incentive For Investment In Sugar Industry

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Industry Ministry offers fiscal incentive for investors building sugar factories in Indonesia.

"We offer tax holiday  and tax allowance. Sugar factory needs large sugar plantation. Therefore, a prospective investor is entitled  incentives," Agro Industry Director General Panggah Susanto  said here on Thursday.

Panggah said the industry ministry will coordinate with other related ministries or agencies to maintain favorable investment climate in sugar industry.

He said currently there are three sugar factories under construction in  Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara; Lamongan, East Java and in Lampung.

The three factories will have supplies of sugarcane from own plantations and their respective plasma farmers .

Panggah said the processing capacity of each of  the sugar factories is around 6-8 tons of cane per day (tcd)  or around 150,000 tons  to 200,000 tons per year.

It is small , but it would be enough to serve as a substitute for import of double refined sugar the  need for which reaches 2.7 million tons per year, he said, adding the requirement grow six percent per year,  
"The country's industrial requirement follows the trend of expansion of food processing industry, which grew nine percent in the country in 2014 and eight percent in 2015," he said.

More factories especially double refined sugar factories  are needed in the coming years, he added. (WDY)