The government increased the coal export quota by 100 million tons this year to increase foreign exchange. However, there are still several mining governance problems, especially coal.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The government's policy of opening an additional coal export quota of 100 million tons this year has received attention from a number of parties. The policy should still pay attention to accountable governance and appropriate mining practices.
The government hopes that there will be an additional 1.5 billion US dollars in foreign exchange from the additional export quota. Increasing the coal export quota is one of the steps taken by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) in an effort to increase foreign exchange while reducing the current account deficit.
This year's coal production is targeted at 485 million tons, while supply to meet domestic needs reaches 114 million tons. This means that there will be 371 million tons of coal exported and this will increase to 471 million tons if this new policy is added.
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Governance
Researcher at Publish What You Pay Indonesia, Rizky Ananda Wulan, said that there are still a number of problems in terms of mining governance, especially coal. These problems include hundreds of mining business permits (IUP) that do not have clear and clean status without problems (CNC), non-tax state revenue receivables (PNBP) amounting to IDR 4.5 trillion as of July 2018; and 212,000 hectares of coal concession land located in conservation forest areas.
"The government's efforts to boost production and exports to increase state revenues without being accompanied by a monitoring or law enforcement system will cause problems in the future," said Rizky.
Based on research by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and Article 33 Indonesia, there are differences in recording data between government agencies, such as the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Central Statistics Agency and the Ministry of Trade, regarding export data. The data was then compared with data from coal importing countries from Indonesia.
In the last 10 years, there has been a difference in the volume of 432 million tonnes of coal which should have been included in state revenues amounting to IDR 10.9 trillion to IDR 23.7 trillion.
The government is preparing short and medium-long term plans to slow down oil and gas imports. Apart from improving the current account deficit, oil and gas imports are controlled to save foreign exchange. The short-term plan being realized this year is the implementation of a 20 percent biodiesel mandate and increasing the coal production quota. Medium-long term plans, optimization and refinery construction.
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