Coal miners told to pay royalty or risk export ban

The South Kalimantan provincial administration warned coal mining companies to immediately pay their tax arrears to the local government or risk being banned from making export, the local Banjarmasin Post daily reported on Tuesday.

The paper quoted head of the local mining and energy office Sukardhi as saying that four out of six coal mining firms operating in the province had unpaid royalty of around Rp 500 billion.

He said that the largest offender is PT Arutmin Indonesia, which owes around Rp 200 billion in unpaid royalty.

He said that the provincial administration will ban the coal mining firms if they fail to pay the royalty by next month. (The firms should have already paid the royalty at the end of last year).

"If they do not pay, we'll ban them from exporting their coal products," Sukardhi said.

Meanwhile, Arutmin Indonesia public relations officer Zainuddin GR said that the company was in the process of repaying the debt.

Separately, the paper also reported that provincial owned company called PD Bangun Banua had singed a deal with Arutmin to help mine coal in the latter's concession area Gunung Meratus, Kotabaru regency.

The MoU between the two companies was signed on Monday.(*)