Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) has served legal notices on three more Indonesian companies, after finding indications that smoke from fires on their land in Kalimantan could have drifted to Singapore.
The three companies, named by NEA on Monday, are PT Baratama Putra Perkasa, PT Buana Megatama Jaya and PT Mananjung Hayak.
The notices bring to 10 the number of Indonesian companies NEA has targeted since 16 October under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA). No company has been fined or sued under the law since it came into force in 2014.
The Preventive Measure Notices, issued under Section 9 of the THPA, require the companies to deploy firefighters to put out or contain fires on land they own or occupy, stop or refrain from any burning, and submit to NEA any plan to extinguish the fires or prevent them from recurring.
NEA served the same notices on seven other companies on 16 October for fires originating in Sumatra. They are PT Bangkanesia, PT Bumi Andalas Permai, PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, PT Hutan Lestari Raya, PT Paramitra Mulia Langgeng, PT SBA Wood Industries and PT Sumatera Alam Anugerah.
The latest notices are the first in this haze episode to be linked to fires in Kalimantan. NEA’s daily haze advisories have named Kalimantan as a source of smoke reaching Singapore since early October. On 15 October, the agency forecast that dense smoke from Kalimantan would continue to drift towards Singapore on east-south-easterly winds.
In a statement on 19 October, NEA said that it “remains committed to taking enforcement action against errant companies found responsible for causing transboundary haze in Singapore.”
Ministers step up pressure
Announcing the first notices on 16 October, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said NEA would issue more if it found that other companies had caused fires that sent haze to Singapore. She said conditions are likely to improve only with the inter-monsoon period in late October or early November, when lighter and more variable winds are less likely to carry smoke from Sumatra or Kalimantan.
Singapore’s air quality first entered the unhealthy range on 4 September, the first time since October 2023. On 14 October, the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) crossed into the very unhealthy range for the first time this year, reaching 203 in the west. It stood at a season-high of 230 in the west on 18 October.
The Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre expects El Niño conditions to strengthen through October and November, with below-normal rainfall across much of the southern Asean region, though it said inter-monsoon showers towards the end of October could start to ease the haze.
Stanislav Kim, Senior Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Bangkok Regional Hub, noted in a 1 October note on UNDP’s website co-written with colleague Sooin Bang that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) expects El Niño to peak towards the end of 2026 and last into 2027.
“Drier conditions, water stress, crop losses, wildfires and extreme heat could persist or intensify even as El Niño itself weakens,” they observed.
Senior Minister K Shanmugam, who is Singapore’s Coordinating Minister for National Security, said on Monday that Singapore would use “every legal and regulatory lever” against companies responsible for the fires, whether or not they have a presence in Singapore.
He told the media that the Singapore Exchange (SGX) had queried seven Singapore-listed agricultural companies about their operations and any links to the fires. The government would also examine whether companies linked to the haze receive grants or incentives in Singapore, he said.
“If necessary, we will amend current legislation or introduce new laws on an urgent basis to ensure further cooperation,” he said.
Asked about experts’ warnings that legal action could have diplomatic implications, Shanmugam said: “What do these experts think we are supposed to do? Shiver in our shoes before we take any legal action to protect our own people? That’s not the Singapore approach.”
He said Singapore’s actions were in line with policies announced by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, and that dealing with the companies was as much in Indonesia’s interest as Singapore’s.
He also took issue with remarks made on 10 October by Syahganda Nainggolan, head of Indonesia’s Government Communications Agency, that Indonesia also supplies oxygen to Malaysia and Singapore. “Frankly, it is not right to say this when this entire region is suffering as a result of the bad behaviour of companies breaching regulations in Indonesia,” Shanmugam said.
No penalties imposed under the Act yet
Under the THPA, a company that causes or contributes to haze pollution in Singapore can be fined up to S$100,000 for each day of haze, and up to S$50,000 for each day it fails to comply with a preventive measures notice, with total fines capped at S$2 million. Anyone in Singapore who suffers injury, damage or economic loss can also sue, with no cap on damages.
Eco-Business calculated last week that this year’s haze could cost Singapore more than the S$1.83 billion it lost in 2015, at between S$3.2 billion and S$3.9 billion, based on a preliminary assessment by economist Euston Quah. The maximum fine would cover less than a thousandth of that.
In the same report, Alan Tan, Professor at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore, said the Act depends on Jakarta’s help. “There is no way Singapore can investigate and prove facts on the ground without the Indonesian authorities’ direct involvement and co-operation,” he said. He told Eco-Business he expected Singapore to act only against companies that Indonesia has itself identified and charged, since a case resting on meteorological and map evidence would have to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Over the 2015 haze, NEA served notices on six Indonesian companies. It closed two of the investigations in 2017, and the other four remain open. Three of those six, PT Bumi Andalas Permai, PT Bumi Mekar Hijau and PT SBA Wood Industries, are among the seven served last week. When NEA obtained a court warrant in 2016 for a company director who had failed to attend an interview, Indonesia’s environment minister said her ministry would review its cooperation with Singapore.
Shanmugam said the Attorney-General’s Chambers had advised that the issuing of notices to companies this month may raise technical and legal issues. Evidence from Indonesia has also become harder to obtain. Since September, Indonesia’s forestry ministry has made its Sigap mapping platform, the official source of geospatial forest data, view-only, and extracting its data without written approval now carries penalties of up to nine years in prison.
APP warned over green certification
Companies linked to the haze are being subject to other action. The Singapore Environment Council (SEC), a non-profit that runs the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme, on 18 October said it placed temporary restrictions on Asia Pulp & Paper’s (APP) certification under the scheme.
It independently certifies products, from paper to household goods, that meet its environmental standards. APP’s certification falls under its enhanced version for pulp and paper, known as SGLS+.
The notice covers concessions in South Sumatra run by PT Bumi Andalas Permai, PT Bumi Mekar Hijau and PT SBA Wood Industries, the three companies NEA served in both 2015 and last week. All three supply wood fibre to APP.
Under the restrictions, APP must report daily on its fire response in those concessions, under strict monitoring. If that reporting does not show that fire prevention and suppression have been strengthened effectively, SEC said, the certificate may be suspended, and products covered by it would have to stop carrying the label.
Shanmugam named APP, which is incorporated in Singapore, as an example of how the government would look beyond individual concession holders to the corporations that control them.
This is not the first time APP has been implicated in regional haze crises. NEA had served APP’s Singapore company a notice under Section 10 of the THPA more than a decade ago in September 2015, which sought information on APP’s subsidiaries in Singapore and Indonesia, and on what its suppliers in Indonesia were doing to put out fires in their concessions.
On the same day, NEA served Preventive Measure Notices on four Indonesian companies, among them was PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries, the company listed last week as PT SBA Wood Industries.
SEC placed a temporary restriction on APP’s green label then and NTUC FairPrice withdrew all APP paper products from its stores the same day, with Sheng Siong and Prime Supermarket doing the same. APP’s products were eventually stripped of the label. SEC subsequently launched a tougher eco-label for paper in 2017, adding requirements on peatland management, fire prevention, zero burning and disclosure of entire supply chains.
APP later regained certification under the enhanced scheme, which now covers about 58 pulp and paper products, including printing and hygiene paper.
