Government to form coal management agency

The government will establish a special-purpose agency to manage and coordinate the use of coal it receives as royalty from the country?s coal mining companies, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

Bambang Setiawan, Director General of Coal, Minerals and Geothermal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said in Jakarta on Thursday that the new coal management agency would be established as soon as the government revised the Presidential Decree No. 75.1996 on coal royalty.

Under the existing regulations, the royalty from coal miners is given in the form of cash based on the prevailing prices of coal in the market. The change will allow the government to receive the royalty in the form of coal rather than in the form of cash.

?We should first change the regulation before we decide to establish the agency,? Bambang said.

According to him, the planned agency would have the responsibility to manage the distribution and sales of the coal royalty the government receives from coal miners with the main purpose of ensuring sufficient coal supply in the domestic market.

Bambang also said that his office had completed the drafting of four mining regulations, but it would first consult the proposed rulings to stakeholders in the mining sector by the end of March before proposing them to President for approval.

The four regulations would among others cover several mining aspects on a mining area and coal and mineral activities which also include the domestic market obligation (DMO), supervision and control and reclamation and post-mining activities. (*)