Coal association opposes plan to issue new regulation on coal exports
Thursday, June 12 2003 - 12:27 AM WIB
ICMA chairman Jeffrey Mulyono made the protest via a May 22 letter to the minister of energy and mineral resources, a copy of which was made available to Petromindo. Com.
Ministry of industry and trade had been drafting new regulations with an aim to curb trade of coal resulting from illegal mining operation. Under the proposed regulations, coal exporters must obtain license from the ministry, and the ministry, via the director general of overseas trade will approve the volume of coal that can be exported on a six-monthly basis. The ministry will decide the export volume of each exporter based on surveyor's recommendation. Regency administration's approval will also be needed to export coal.
Jeffrey argued the government had issued regulations to curb illegal mining including a presidential decree (Keppres) and regency regulations. They should be enough to curb illegal coal mining activities, he said.
He added that existing mechanism applied by the ministry of industry and trade like Exports Notification (PEB) and Certificate of Origin (CO) were adequate to regulate coal exports.
Jeffrey said further that the volume of coal exports derived from illegal miners were small, while estimating that illegal coal products were mostly sold domestically.
Indonesia's coal exports come mostly from firms with coal contract of work (PKB2B) awarded by the government, Jeffrey said.
He said further ICMA last month received a draft regulation on coal exports prepared by the ministry of industry and trade, and that ICMA members had studied it.
ICMA was against a clause of the draft regulation that the ministry of industry and trade would be authorized to allocate coal exports every six months. Doing so would disrupt the implementation of the annual plans of coal producers and exporters, which must be approved by the ministry of energy and mineral resources under existing law and regulations.
ICMA was also against the provision that coal exporters must ask regents and mayors for approval before shipping their coal overseas. "This will only increase red tape on the coal businesses," Jeffrey said.
It said that quarterly reports on coal exports should be submitted to the ministry of energy and mineral resources as practiced so far, and not to the ministry of industry and trade.
As regards to illegal coal mining, Jeffrey said that ICMA was willing to sit together with the government to formulate measures to curb the activities.
Illegal coal mining activities are still rampant in Indonesia, mainly in Kalimantan, despite government efforts to eradiate them.
Many illegal coal miners use modern equipment to excavate coal and transport their products through their own ports that are also operated without permit. (godang)