Hundreds of thousand tons of dead stock coal neglected
Monday, July 24 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Hundreds of thousand tons of illegal coals or dead stock coals will be neglected as the South Kalimantan administration gives dispensation on the sales of only up to 600,000 illegal coals. Meanwhile, many have predicted that the amount of dead stock coals is far higher than 600,000 tons.
South Kalimantan governor HM Sjachriel Darham rules in a letter no. 021/SEK-TIM/VII/2000 that illegal coals that have been mined and transported to stockpiles or ports can be given dispensation and therefore can be sold. But their amount may not exceed 600,000 tons.
The South Kalimantan spokesman Hadi Soesilo said that the governor issued the ruling after consulting with the head of the province's legislative body, officials from various regencies and chairman of the team for the supervision and settlement of coal problems.
Illegal coals are currently stocked in a number of ports, including in special ports belonging to PT Arutmin and PT Bahari Cakrawala Sabuku, general ports in Stagen Kotabaru, Satui, Batulicin, and Banjarmasin, as well as coal port belonging to PT Hasnur and all ports belonging to PT Pelindo III.
Hadi said that after the issuance of the governor's ruling, dispensation given by the team for the supervision and settlement of coal problems was declared void, and only dispensation issued by the governor's office was considered legal.
He also said that miners or any other parties that had transported and sold illegal coal since Jan. 1, 2000, but had not yet paid the required levies, were obliged to settle their unpaid levies by Nov. 6, 2000.
According to the chairman of the team for the supervision and settlement of coal problems, Armain Janit, the dispensation is given only to illegal coals that have been transported to ports or already collected in stockpiles.
As for illegal coals that have not been collected to stockpiles or transported to ports, their fate is still unclear, so is the fate of illegal coals in stockpiles and ports if their amount is in excess of 600,000 tons.
Nevertheless, Armain said that his party was still at dark about how many illegal coals were available in the province.
He only said that most of the illegal coals were found in the Kotabaru district. And therefore, Kotabaru would get the largest quota to sell illegal coals. Kotabaru is projected to get around 300,000 tons to 400,000 tons quota, while the other 200,000 tons quota will be distributed to other regencies, including Tapin and Banjarmasin. (*)