CORRECTION: 33 coal mining companies suspend investments

This is the correct version of the previous article entitled with "33 coal mining companies suspend investments"

As many as 33 coal mining companies have suspended their investments estimated to reach around US$1 billion in value during the past four years due to unfavorable investment climate created by government regulations which are not inline with mining business, the association of Indonesian coal miners (APBI) said as reported by Kompas on Thursday.

The association?s secretary general, Jeffrey Mulyono, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that most of the above companies had just started their coal mining projects but later suspended them to avoid greater financial losses.

Jeffrey warned that if the government did not improve the investment climate, the country?s coal mining industry would collapse and could only recover after 10 to 20 years. He said that investors would monitor whether there has been a change in the law and regulation.

According to him, the surviving investors are only those who have been operating here for a long time and have made huge investment.

He said that three companies suspended their mining projects in 1998, 15 companies in 1999, nine companies in 2000 and six in 2001.

According to Jeffrey, government regulations which have discouraged coal companies among others include government regulation No. 144/2000 which changed the status of coal from taxable product to non-taxable product; Law No 34/ 2000 on the expansion of tax on motorized vehicles; Law No 41; 1999 on forestry and regulation No 82/2001 on water quality management and several other regulations issued by provincial administrations. (*)