JAKARTA (Oct 9): The Indonesian government is looking to include palm oil on its online tracking system in a bid to improve accountability and governance, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Wednesday.

Indonesia is the world's biggest producer and exporter of palm oil.

The online system, known as SIMBARA, was first implemented in 2022 to track movements of coal. This year, the government started tracking domestic shipments of nickel and tin on SIMBARA.

Indonesia has pledged to improve the governance of the palm oil industry to ensure compliance on taxes, land permits and other rules, as well as to better monitor the industry's latest conditions.

By digitally tracking palm oil's supply chain, the government will be able to gather current and more accurate data on sales and hopes revenue from the sector will increase, Luhut told a forum attended by members of the palm oil farmers association.

He said government revenue from coal rose 40% after the SIMBARA implementation.

Luhut did not elaborate on when palm oil will be included on SIMBARA, but said president-elect Prabowo Subianto, who will take office on Oct 20, is expected to issue "firm instructions" on the issue.

Indonesia in 2020 issued rules to sort out the legality of plantations operating in areas that are supposed to be forests, aiming to fix governance in the sector.

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