9,000 KP holders apply for IUP

Around 9,000 Mining Authorization or KP holders have officially asked the government to change their contracts into Mining Business Permits or IUP in line with the Mineral and Coal Law No. 4/2009, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Director General of Mineral, Coal and Gothermal Bambang Setiawan said on Wednesday that his office is evaluating the IUP applications.

Under the new law, all contracts including KP and Contract of Works should be converted into IUP. The government has given until April 30 for KP holders to request for a change in their contracts into IUP. KP was issued by regional governments and the regional government often failed to report the issuance of the KP to the central government that the latter did not have a complete list of KPs issued by the regional governments throughout the country.

Bambang said his office would not automatically meet the KP holders? requests. His office will first check whether they have met all administrative requirements and do not have land overlapping problems.

He said he believe there are KP holders who had failed to submit applications for IUP by the deadline because they did not aware about the deadline due to the lack of information from the regional governments. His office might still accept the applications submitted beyond the April 30 deadline ?but we shall first see the reasons (behind the late applications) case per case,? he said.

He said the around 9,000 KP holders who have asked for IUP are mostly based in East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. (Godang)