Plan to ban low rank coal export still under review

By Cepi Setiadi

The government said it is still reviewing and discussing the plan to ban the export of low rank coal starting 2014.

Director of Coal Business and Supervision at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Eddy Prasodjo said that up to now there is no final decision yet on the matter.

"We know that on the draft of the Mining Law, it has already been stated but we have to discuss it more intensively since there are so many inputs, including on the calorific value of 5,100 and 5,700 (as stated on the implementing Ministerial Regulation) which are still subject for further discussions," said Eddy to petromindo.com today.

Eddy added the government is still studying potential impacts of the ban, such as the declining of the state revenue and labor issue. "The government also considers that as long as there is no proven technology for coal upgrading, we will be very careful in banning the low rank coal export," said Eddy.

"We are still studying the positive and negative impacts, and we will invite all the stakeholders to submit their inputs," said Eddy.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana