House, government aim to complete revision of mining law this year

The House of Representatives and the government have agreed to speed up the deliberation of proposed revision of the 2009 Mining Law, hoping that it could be completed this year.

Members of the House of Representatives Commission VII on energy and mining met on Monday with top officials of the Directorate General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to seek ways to start the deliberation process as soon as possible.

Lawmaker Fadel Muhammad said that there are four crucial points in the proposed revision of the 2009 Mining Law. The first is regarding the issue of mining contract extension. Under the current law, miners can only request for contract extension two years before the expiry of the contract. Fadel said that there has been a proposal to ease the requirement by allowing miners to apply for contract extension ten years before its expiry.

The second is with regard to the government?s non-tax revenue from the mining sector (or known as PNBP), which has been declining. Fadel said that has to be new ways to help increase the PNBP from the mining sector.

The third is to deal with conflicting regulations. For instance, under the 2009 Mining Law, the governor holds the authority in issuing mining permits in the regions. But a regional autonomy law introduced in 2014 gives that authority to regents or mayors.

And finally, the fourth is defining which of the country?s mining commodities can be exported and which can?t.

The proposed revision of the 2009 Mining Law was initiated by the House. But the government via the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources provided inputs including those gathered from industry associations, Director General of Mineral and Coal Bambang Gatot Ariyono, but declined to disclose what inputs were suggested by the government.(*)