Miners told to settle royalty arrears soon or risked contract termination

By Thomas R. Sembiring

The government warned miners in the country to settle their royalty and land reclamation fund arrears by end of October, or would be declared in default status that could lead to mining contract termination.

This was said by Director General of Mineral and Coal R. Sukhyar during a meeting with 107 miners holding the so-called mining contract of work (KK) and coal mining contract of work (PKP2B) at the headquarters of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Wednesday.

?They have to settle the arrears by end of October at the latest. If not, we?ll declare them in default, and they must immediately fix the problem. If they continue to fail to fix it, then (the contract) can be terminated,? Sukhyar said, adding that option for the government to terminate the contract of miners failing to fulfill their financial obligations to the state is stipulated in both the KK and PKP2B contracts.

Paul Lubis, Secretary of the Directorate General of Mineral and Coal, was quoted by this portal previously as saying that the total coal royalty arrears for the period of 2006-2013 stood at Rp 1.5 trillion.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak