Minister to soon issue regulation on revocation of mining permits

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said is expected to soon issue a ministerial regulation on the guidelines for governors to revoke problematic IUP mining business permits, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Tuesday.

The paper quoted ministry spokesman Heriyanto as saying the draft of the regulation is being reviewed by the ministry?s legal bureau, scheduled to be signed by the minister on December 11.

Heriyanto said that according to the regulation, governors will be given 3-6 months time to make a final review of the problematic IUPs, before deciding which to be revoked.

He explained that if the problematic IUPs are related to the failure of miners in paying royalty to the government properly, the miners will be first given three warning letters to pay their royalty obligation in full before the governor revokes their mining permits.

Meanwhile, if the problematic mining permit is related to the issue of overlapping of permits, the governors can immediately revoke them. The permit will be given to the miner which first obtained it.

According to ministry data, out of the total 10,364 IUPs, 3,960 IUPs remain in problematic condition, or categorized as non-clean and clear status.

Heriyanto said that governors failing to revoke problematic IUPs by the deadline will be given sanction, to be regulated under a separate regulation to be issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Possible sanctions include the withholding of central government funds for the regions, or reduction in the region?s revenue share from the mining commodities.

He added that the government has anticipated the possibility of some miners filing lawsuits over the revocation of their IUP mining permits. (*)