Govt plans incentives for domestic coal processing

The government plans to provide various forms of incentive to encourage the domestic processing of coal to generate greater value added from the commodity, Kontan reported on Saturday.

The paper quoted Director General of Mineral and Coal R. Sukhyar as saying that the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is currently in talks with the Ministry of Finance to formulate the incentive policy. He did not specify the type of incentives to be given to coal miners, but it could be among others in the form of lengthier mining permit.

The paper, however, said that under the plan, coal crushing and washing activities are not categorized as processing activities. Under the new Government Regulation No 77/2014 Chapter 94, miners are obliged to process coal through activities such as coal liquefaction, gasification, and upgrading. (*)