Miners protest upfront payment of coal royalty

Coal miners in the country protested a new government regulation requiring upfront payment of coal royalty, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Thursday.

The paper quoted Secretary General of the Indonesia Coal Mining Association, Supriatna Suhala as saying that the new requirement ?does not make sense? and would cause losses to the industry players.

He said that calculation of the royalty can only be made once coal transaction with the buyers has been completed. He added that transaction process takes a rather long time to complete.

Supriatna said that by requiring miners to pay royalty upfront, it could lead to miscalculation.

Meanwhile, Paul Lubis, a director at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said that the new regulation is only applied to miners holding the IUP mining permits.

He said that the policy was designed to force miners to properly pay the royalty to the government as many of them have often delayed payment.

According to report from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), coal royalty arrears currently stand at Rp 1.5 trillion. (*)