With the certificate, a citizen dare claim "Yes I own NKRI (the Unitary State of Indonesia)", the president said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has pledged faster process of land reform saying certificates would be issued for five million pieces of land property this year.

With the certificate, a citizen dare claim "Yes I own NKRI (the Unitary State of Indonesia)", the president said when addressing a group of recipients of land certificate in the sub-district of Panyabungan, Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra on Saturday.

Many pieces of land property have no certificates in the country and many have false certificates resulting in many cases of land dispute in the country.

Jokowi gave a target for the Agrarian Affairs Minister Sofyan Djalil to issue certificates for 5 million pieces of land property this year.

The Minister was told to move much faster after normally his office issued only up to 700,000 certificates a year.

Jokowi said so far the biggest problem has been shortage in number of land surveyors. Therefore, he asked to increase the number of the surveyors.

"The target for next year is certificates for 7 million pieces of land," the president said.

Only 46 million of 106 million pieces of land property in the country have been given certificate. The president wants that the process of certification should be wrapped up by 2025.

The government would continue push for land reform with faster distribution of land certificates to create justice in land use and ownership of resources in the lands, he said.

If realization falls short of the target, ones have to stand to account for the failure from the heads of the district land office (BPN) to the provincial BPN and the minister in charge, the president warned.

"All leaders are charged with carrying their duties and reaching the targets," he said.

Agrarian reform is limited not only to administrative duty of settling land disputes , but more on creating justice, he added.

Land certificates could be used as collateral for bank loans, but he asked the land owners to use the land certificate only for something productive like collateral for working capital credits.

Agrarian Affairs Minister Sofyan Djalil said 1,158 holders of land certificate representing all regencies and municipal cities in North Sumatra attended the ceremony in Penyabungan.

The minister said many small land owner have problem in paying fee for the land and building right title (BPHTB).

Some regions have the policy to exempt small land owners from BPHTB or give a discount. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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