The findings are important because land certificates provide more than formal documentation. Legal land registration can strengthen certainty of ownership, protect citizens from disputes, and support the use of land as an economic and social asset. Through PTSL, the government has sought to accelerate systematic land registration so that land ownership becomes legally clearer and easier to protect.
PTSL and the Challenge of Equal Access
PTSL is designed to register land systematically rather than relying only on individual applications. In Pasuruan Regency, the program covered 36 villages and urban villages in 2025. The Land Office set a target of 15,000 Land Rights Certificates (SHAT) and 15,000 K1 parcels, with implementation divided among five operational teams. All five teams reached their respective targets, resulting in an overall realization rate of 100 percent.
The five teams handled different numbers of parcels: Team I completed 2,424 parcels, Team II 3,296, Team III 3,132, Team IV 3,406, and Team V 2,742. Together, they completed all 15,000 targeted parcels.
However, Tatimmatunni’Amah and Aminullah found that the achievement should not be interpreted solely through the number of certificates or registered parcels. Citizens did not necessarily experience the registration process in the same way. Some applicants had adequate documents and understood administrative procedures, while others faced difficulties in understanding requirements, resolving family ownership issues, or obtaining information about the progress of their applications.
Administrative Literacy Becomes a Major Barrier
The study identified low administrative literacy as one of the cross-cutting challenges in PTSL implementation. Some citizens had difficulty understanding documentary requirements, procedural stages, and the steps needed to address incomplete applications.
Dependence on intermediaries could further complicate access to information. Local actors, village officials, or other intermediaries often became important links between citizens and the land administration system. While such assistance can help applicants navigate the process, it can also create information gaps if citizens do not directly know the status of their applications, missing documents, timelines, or possible costs.
Inheritance disputes and boundary disagreements were additional obstacles. The researchers reported cases involving unresolved inheritance, differences between physical and juridical land information, unclear boundaries, and past land transactions that were not supported by adequate written evidence. These problems can prevent otherwise eligible parcels from progressing smoothly through registration.
Reported Local Preparation Costs Require Transparency
Financial factors also emerged as an important issue. The study recorded community reports of local preparation costs ranging from Rp200,000 to Rp2 million for items or activities such as boundary markers, affidavits, stamps, and related administrative preparation.
Technology Supports Implementation but Cannot Solve Every Problem
Pasuruan's PTSL implementation was supported by substantial organizational and technological resources. The Land Office operated five teams with physical and juridical task forces and used administrative and spatial information, including the KKP system, Letter C records, block maps, and satellite or drone imagery.
Nevertheless, technology alone cannot resolve problems such as missing inheritance documents, family disputes, unclear boundaries, or limited administrative understanding. The study therefore distinguishes between the capacity of an organization to deliver a program and the ability of individual citizens to navigate that program.
The researchers describe this condition as an “implementation-capability gap.” In simple terms, government institutions may have sufficient organizational capacity to deliver a program, while citizens may have very different levels of ability to understand information, prepare documents, meet requirements, and protect their legal interests.
From Certificate Targets to Substantive Equality
The study argues that PTSL performance should not be measured only by the number of completed certificates. A program can reach its numerical target while citizens continue to face unequal administrative, informational, financial, and legal burdens.
Tatimmatunni’Amah and Aminullah of Universitas Yudharta Pasuruan emphasize, in substance, that PTSL can improve equality in access to legally recognized land rights, but that benefit depends on whether citizens can actually navigate the registration process. The study does not claim that PTSL directly reduces overall social inequality because it did not measure changes in household income, wealth, or welfare over time.
This distinction is important. The evidence supports a conclusion about equality of access to legal land rights, rather than a broader claim that land registration automatically eliminates economic or social inequality.
Policy Implications for Land Registration
The researchers propose several practical measures to make PTSL implementation more accessible.
First, citizen information should be delivered directly and in standardized formats, including clear explanations of requirements, procedures, costs, and complaint channels. Second, cases could be differentiated according to their level of complexity, including routine applications, document-deficient cases, inheritance disputes, and boundary disputes.
Third, financial transparency should be strengthened through standardized receipts and publicly available information about legitimate preparation costs. Fourth, applicants could benefit from clearer tracking mechanisms that allow them to understand the status of their applications.
The researchers also recommend using equity-sensitive indicators alongside certificate counts. Such indicators would help policymakers evaluate not only whether registration targets are achieved, but also whether citizens with different levels of administrative capability can access the same legal protections.
Research Methodology
The study used a qualitative descriptive approach at the Pasuruan Regency Land Office. The researchers interviewed 15 purposively selected informants: two land office officials, one village official, one local PTSL committee chair, and 11 community members.
Data came from interviews, observations, and document analysis, including PTSL targets and realizations for 2025–2026 and local land records such as Letter C. The researchers compared information from different sources to strengthen the credibility of the findings and interpreted the implementation process using the Edwards III policy implementation framework and Amartya Sen's capability approach.
Because the research focused on one regency and 15 informants, its findings are not intended to statistically represent all PTSL applicants in Indonesia. The reported local preparation costs also cannot be treated as universal or official PTSL tariffs.
About the Authors
Tatimmatunni’Amah is affiliated with the Public Administration Department, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universitas Yudharta Pasuruan. Her research in this article focuses on public administration, land registration policy, policy implementation, and equality of access to legal land rights.
Aminullah is also affiliated with the Public Administration Department, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universitas Yudharta Pasuruan and serves as the corresponding author. His work in this article focuses on public administration, policy implementation, PTSL, land legality, and substantive equality.
The journal article does not state the authors' academic degrees, so no degree designation is added here.
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