Govt cuts down revenue target from mining sector

By Thomas Sembiring

The government has cut down by 43.16 percent the so-called non-tax revenue target from the coal and mineral sectors this year to Rp 29.67 trillion from Rp 52.2 trillion amid falling price and production volume.

This was said by Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Bambang Gatot Ariyono on Monday.

The country?s coal production in the January-September period of this year fell by 14.44 percent to 308 million compared to 360 million in the corresponding period of last year as miners revised downward production target amid lingering drop in the price of the commodity. Export in the first nine months of this year also declined by 19.8 percent to 235 million tons year-on-year due to slowing demand particularly in China.

Meanwhile, revenue from the mineral sector has also dropped significantly following the introduction of mineral ores export ban in January of last year. Export of processed and refined mineral products remains low as most of the planned domestic smelter projects are still under construction.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak