Govt asked to expedite payment of coal royalty to regencies

Coal mining companies and coal producing regency administrations have requested the government to stop cutting the amounts of coal royalty meant for the regencies, the executive director of Indonesia Coal Mining Association (ICMA) told Petromindo.Com Friday.

?We have asked the government not to slash royalty funds allocated for the regencies, and transfer the funds directly to them,? ICMA executive director Bambang Susanto said.

Some regents had complained that the current procedures of disbursing mining royalty funds to regencies were too complicated.

The procedures stipulate that royalty funds from mining companies go to the government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, which then passes them on to the directorate general of finance at the Ministry of Finance. The funds then go to the Ministry of Finance?s state budget director general, and eventually to state-owned Bank BNI before reaching regency administrations.

Under existing laws, provinces receive 80 percent of the royalties paid to the government by general mining firms. The royalties are then split between the provincial administration and regency administration. (godang)