Govt mulls imposing export tax on coal

If coal prices reach abnormally high, the government may impose export tax on coal in order to secure supplies in the domestic market, Media Indonesia reported on Monday.

?If price reaches an abnormal level, it is possible for the government to introduce export tax on coal,? the chief of the fiscal analyst agency at the finance ministry, Anggito Abimanyu said in Jakarta last week.

He was commenting the proposal by members of the House of Representatives (DPR) that the government needed to impose coal export tax if the price of coal on international market reaches a certain level. This measure is necessary in order to secure the supply for local industries.

Abimanyu said that if coal price returned to the 2008 peak, the government would have the reason to impose export tax so that the supply for the local market could be secured.

The president director of PT Arya Citra Mineconsult, Jeffrey Mulyono, which also president director of coal mining firm PT.Bhakti Energi Persada (BEP) acknowledged that the higher prices would encourage Indonesian coal producers to focus on export markets.

But export tax should be wisely imposed so that export tax would not hurt the producers, he said. ?At present coal prices which are still fluctuating between US$68 and $69 per ton are still relatively low,? he said.

Meanwhile, Bambang Setiawan, the Director General of Coal, Mineral and Geothermal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said that ministry was coordinating with other ministries over the export tax idea (*)