On 13 April 2020, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo, issued Presidential Decree No. 12 of 2020 concerning the Determination of Corona Virus Pandemic Non-Natural Disaster as a National Disaster (“Presidential Decree No. 12/2020”). Since then, to halt COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has implemented Large-Scale Social Restrictions (Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar or “PSBB”), which is a formal policy for a “social distancing” program in several provinces and/or cities in Indonesia. The PSBB regulates policies to change people’s daily activities in living and operating and to limit meetings and interactions between people.

During this COVID-19 pandemic and in line with the PSBB program, the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning of Indonesia/National Land Agency (known as Badan Pertanahan Nasional and referred to as “BPN”) issued to its work programs a protocol for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. One such program is the national priority program called the Complete Systematic Land Registration (Pendaftaran Tanah Sistematis Lengkap or “PTSL”) program.

Other than the PTSL program, on 16 April 2020, BPN issued Decree No. 88.1/SK-HR.01/IV/2020 concerning the Extension of the Validity Period of Land Rights and Registration Period for Granting Approvals, Extensions, or Renewals of Land Rights which have ended or will end during the COVID-19 Emergency (“Extension”) (the “Regulation”). Through this regulation, BPN has relaxed the deadlines for granting approvals, extension, or renewal of these land rights.

This policy is one of the many efforts conducted by the Government to keep the economy sustainable relaxing the deadlines for land rights services.

Extension regulation

The positive impact of the enactment of the Regulation is that land rights or registrations of land rights (in either case with a certain period) which will expire between 31 March 2020 and 31 December 2020 are extended until 31 December 2020 (“Extension”). 

This Extension is granted for the validity period of land rights and the registration period for granting approvals, extensions, or renewals of land rights. In line with this, the land rights whose period of validity can be extended are land rights with a certain term, i.e. right to cultivate (hak guna usaha), right to build (hak guna bangunan), and right to use (hak pakai). One thing from the Regulation that must be stressed is that the policy stipulated in the Regulation does not apply to land rights whose period of validity expired before 31 March 2020.

The granting of Extensions for land rights will be processed in accordance with the provisions of related laws, calculated from the term of expiry of the rights stipulated in the land book (record related to land rights kept by BPN). This implies that the extension of the above provisions will not be conducted automatically. Article 47 of Government Regulation No. 24 of 1997 on Land Registration states that the registration of an extension of the period of a land right must be carried out by recording it in the relevant land book and right certificate on the basis of an authorized official’s decision to grant an extension to the term of the land right concerned.

This means that in relation to the Regulation, the Extension should be invoked by the land title holders or recipients of such rights with the relevant local BPN for the land’s location. If the land title holders fail to implement the procedures before 31 December 2020, the land rights will expire and the registration of land title will be void.

With this relaxation being given by the Government through the Regulation, landowners whose land rights will expire within the period of the Extension or who are in the process of registering their land rights are granted an extension until 31 December 2020 amidst this COVID-19 pandemic.

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The article above was prepared by Al Hakim Hanafiah (Partner), Trijoyo Ariwibowo (Senior Associate), and Aditya Parlindungan Pratama Sitanggang (Associate).

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