Electricity team to be promoted into power regulatory body

The government will promote the status of the coordination team for the development of power plants under the fast track program into a power regulatory body in order to speed up the construction of power plants by independent power producers (IPPs), Kompas reported Tuesday.

The head of the team Yogo Pratomo said Monday that the promotion of the team's status was needed in order to shorten the bureaucracy procedures needed by independent power producers in negotiation and project approval process.

"The Vice President proposed the promotion of the status of the team into a regulatory body so that it would have more power in overseeing the construction of power plants by independent power producers," he told reporters following the meeting.

"With the promotion of the team's status, the process from negotiation to project approval can be shortened into about six months," he said. He, however, said that the Presidential Decree No.72, 2006 as the basis for the establishment of the team should be revised if the status of the team would be promoted into a regulatory body. (*)