Purnomo agrees to allow regions to directly obtain mining royalty

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Wednesday that personally he agreed to allow provinces and regencies to directly obtain royalty from their mining resources.

"Personally, I agree that the royalty should be directly paid to the regions. If it goes to the central government first, it would take a long time before the regions could enjoy the royalty which in turn could create suspicion. But this matter is in the hands of the finance ministry," Purnomo said.

Currently, royalty on general mining activity is transferred first to the central government before being redistributed to the respective regions by the finance ministry. Several provinces and regencies have recently complained about the slow transfer of the mining royalty from the finance ministry to the local administrations.

Finance Minister Prijadi Praptosuhardjo said Wednesday that in principle the ministry would also agree to allow the regions to directly obtain the mining royalty, but the said that further talks on administrative matters with other related ministries were needed before such policy was implemented.

But Prijadi quickly added that the royalty on oil and gas mining would continue to be managed by the central government.(Alex)