Peraturan Menteri Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral 4/2026 is an Indonesian ministerial regulation issued by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources on the use of groundwater for non-business purposes and on the administrative fine charged when unlicensed groundwater abstraction is regularised. Its full title is Pedoman Penggunaan Sumber Daya Air pada Air Tanah dan Tata Cara Pengenaan, Penghitungan, Pembayaran dan/atau Penyetoran Penerimaan Negara Bukan Pajak Berupa Denda Administratif Penataan Izin Pengusahaan Air Tanah dan Persetujuan Penggunaan Air Tanah (guidelines on the use of water resources in groundwater, and the procedure for imposing, calculating, paying and remitting non-tax state revenue in the form of an administrative fine for the regularisation of groundwater business permits and groundwater use approvals). It was signed on 13 January 2026 and promulgated on 22 January 2026, the day it took effect.^[1][2]

The regulation implements the 2024 government regulation on water resources management, Peraturan Pemerintah 30/2024, and the 2025 government regulation on the non-tax revenue tariffs of the energy ministry, Peraturan Pemerintah 19/2025.^[1:1] It forms part of groundwater regulation in Indonesia, within the wider water resources law of Indonesia. The instrument has two parts. The first sets the procedure for the groundwater use approval (Persetujuan Penggunaan Air Tanah), from application to revocation, together with supervision and administrative sanctions. The second sets how the regularisation fine is calculated, notified, paid and collected.

It replaced most of Peraturan Menteri Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral 14/2024, revoking that regulation's provisions on use approvals, competence development, supervision and administrative sanctions, while applications lodged before it took effect continue under the 2024 rules.^[3] CRPG's regulatory tracker reported the instrument in July 2026.^[4]

¶ Scope and licensing structure

The regulation divides groundwater use into business and non-business use. Business use requires a groundwater business permit (Izin Pengusahaan Air Tanah); non-business use requires a use approval. Both are administered by the minister, governors, and regents and mayors, each within their competence, and each is granted for a specific point or place, or a specific reach, in a groundwater basin or other groundwater source.^[5] Both are issued on the basis of the groundwater condition recorded for the relevant groundwater conservation zone (Zona Konservasi Air Tanah): a protection zone in a recharge area, or a utilisation zone classed as safe, vulnerable, critical or damaged. Where no zone has been set, use is controlled by reference to other hydrogeological data inventoried by the competent authority.^[6] The conservation zone is defined in the same terms as in the 2018 zoning guideline, Peraturan Menteri Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral 31/2018.^[7][8]

The business permit itself is left largely to other rules. Applications go through the OSS system, and the requirements, issuance, renewal and holders' obligations follow the ministry's regulation on risk-based business licensing in the energy and mineral resources sector.^[9] A firm located in an industrial estate must maintain the environmental carrying capacity around the estate, including by not abstracting groundwater in accordance with the applicable legislation.^[10]

A use approval is needed for daily basic needs where use reaches 100 cubic metres a month per household, or per group where a well is shared, and for a list of other non-business activities including water recreation or sport managed for public purposes, government research, education and health facilities, free city parks and public facilities, donated group wells, construction dewatering, and the building of recharge or monitoring wells. None is needed below the 100 cubic metre threshold, for government office operations, for places of worship, for non-business smallholder farming, or for water produced or pumped out in operations directly connected with mining, oil and gas, or geothermal exploration and exploitation.^[11]

¶ Use approvals

An application is lodged through the ministry's online licensing application (Aplikasi Perizinan Online) with the applicant's identity, the well location and its coordinates, the planned use and the planned daily abstraction, a statement of willingness to build an infiltration well, and a construction drawing. Dewatering applications carry additional technical data on method, pumps, aquifer depth and pumping duration. After verification and evaluation, a complete application must be decided within 14 working days; an incomplete one must be corrected within seven working days or it lapses.^[12] Issuance is free of charge.^[13]

A holder may take groundwater as the approval allows and must, among other things, drill within one year, fit a water meter at the well outlet, build an infiltration well, give inspectors access, report hazards to health, safety or the environment, remedy environmental damage, and pay any non-tax revenue or other financial obligation due.^[14] A dewatering holder must drill within two months, monitor groundwater with at least a dewatering monitoring well, avoid disturbing wells that neighbouring communities use for daily needs, and report on completion.^[15]

For every issuance, renewal, amendment and regularisation, the permitted discharge in all conservation zones and in unconfined aquifers is limited on the basis of verification and evaluation.^[16] An approval for daily needs lasts for the life of the individual holder, or as long as the community group exists and uses the water; any other approval lasts at most seven years, except that approvals for monitoring or recharge wells last while the well functions.^[17] Renewal may be sought no earlier than six months before expiry.^[18] An approval may be amended for changes in technical data, a substantial change in groundwater conditions, or a change in government policy, and a holder whose well is disabled by a natural disaster may apply to amend it.^[19]

Revocation follows the holder's own application, an administrative sanction, or a final court decision. On an application it must be issued within 14 working days, and after a court decision within 14 working days of receipt. All obligations, including closure of the well, must be met within 30 calendar days of revocation, and a holder whose approval expires without renewal must close the well within the same period; failure to close is sanctioned under the water resources legislation.^[20][21]

¶ Supervision and sanctions

The competent authorities provide guidance through technical assistance, dissemination and consultation, and supervise through periodic review of technical reports and incidental field inspection. Incidental inspection may be triggered by a public complaint, a report from a holder, an indication of non-compliance, a change in technical data, groundwater conditions or policy, a natural disaster, or the needs of central or regional government.^[22]

A permit or approval holder in breach of the listed obligations faces written warnings, temporary suspension of activity, and revocation. Written warnings are issued three times in succession, each for seven working days; a holder who has not corrected the breach after the third warning is suspended, and a holder who has not corrected it within 14 working days of suspension has the permit or approval revoked.^[23]

¶ Regularisation fine

Wells built, or groundwater used, without a permit or approval, or under one that had expired, before Undang-Undang 6/2023 on job creation took effect are subject to regularisation (penataan). The owner or user must apply for an approval, close the well, or, for an underground river, stop the activity, and is liable to an administrative fine; an application is due within three years of that law's entry into force.^[24]

The fine is a type of non-tax state revenue (penerimaan negara bukan pajak, PNBP) charged per permit or approval issued in the regularisation, on five groups of payers: non-business users and micro, small, medium and large businesses.^[25] A technical team calculates it through the online application by multiplying four components: the progressive volume abstracted per month, a tariff per cubic metre for the user group, a coefficient for the user group, and the number of months of breach, counted from construction or from the expiry of the previous licence to the regularisation application. The result is bounded by a minimum and a maximum, and the period may be reduced where the applicant holds evidence of paying groundwater tax.^[26] Annex III sets the formula as D = Vprog × TD × K × J and assigns coefficients from 0 for non-business users to 4 for large businesses.^[27] The fine is set at zero for non-business users and for micro and small businesses abstracting no more than 10 cubic metres a day for daily or office needs.^[28]

The payer receives a notice of PNBP owed, must generate a billing code within 17 calendar days, and may once request an adjustment within 10 calendar days, for miscalculation or unreported tax payments; the team must answer within 14 calendar days.^[29] Payment is made electronically to the state treasury. An unpaid fine leads to rejection of a pending permit application in the OSS system or, for a permit already issued, a demand carrying a surcharge of 2 per cent a month for up to 24 months; if that fails, the permit is revoked and the debt is referred to the authority that manages state receivables.^[30] Non-tax revenue in general is treated at public finance and non-tax revenue in Indonesia.

¶ See also

• Permen ESDM 5/2024
• Permen ESDM 2/2017
• Mining and energy regulation in Indonesia

¶ External links

• Permen ESDM No. 4 Tahun 2026 (JDIH BPK)
• CRPG: Groundwater Use Approvals and Administrative Fines: PERMENESDM 4/2026 (crpg.id, 31 July 2026)

¶ References