Government plans new incentives for coal processing

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is planning to introduce new fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to push miners to process coal into higher value added downstream products, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

?There will be fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for the (coal) down-streaming to make it more interesting (for miners),? said Sujatmiko, ministry Spokesman, to the paper.

According to Government Regulation No 77/2014, coal down-streaming activities include coal upgrading, coal briquetting, coke making, coal liquefaction and coal gasification. However, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Decree No 16/2015 stipulates that only coal gasification and coal liquefaction are entitled to tax allowance incentive.

Therefore, Sujatmiko said that a new ministerial decree will be issued to spell out new incentives to help push the development of domestic coal into higher value added products in line with the government?s policy for more environment friendly utilization of coal. (*)