Minister proposes five options over KPC divestment plan
Monday, February 19 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Purnomo Yusgiantoro proposed at the weekend five options to resolve the troubled divestment plans of East Kalimantan coal giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), the Kaltim Post daily reported on Monday.
The paper said that the minister proposed the options to East Kalimantan Governor Suwarna AF during a meeting Saturday.
"Minister Purnomo proposed five options, we have to choose one," Suwarna said.
But East Kalimantan provincial parliament Speaker Sukardi Djarwo Putro said that the proposed options were not acceptable because it would allow the minister to make the final decision on how many shares KPC should divest this year.
The size of the KPC divestment has been the core of the problem.
KPC insists that according to its mining contract, it's only oblige to divest around 37 percent stake in the first divestment round, but the East Kalimantan administration insists that according to the contract divestment should be 51 percent. KPC should have divested its shares at the late last year.
The government proposed last year for KPC to divest 44 percent stake, which was both rejected by KPC and East Kalimantan.
Sukardi said that East Kalimantan warned KPC to divest its shares by end of this month, or the provincial administration would resort to using the new regional autonomy law, which gives the province autonomy power in managing its natural resources.(*)