Regencies repeat demand for bigger portion of mining royalty

Several regencies have reiterated their demand for a raise in the portion of mining royalty allocated to them, Neraca daily reported Monday.

East Kalimantan?s West Kutai regent Rama A Asia said over the weekend the regency had received only five percent of the total amount of annual royalty paid by mining companies operating in the area, Rama said.

The regent said that West Kutai-based gold producer PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) had paid to the government Rp 200 billion (US$=Rp8,220) in royalty annually over the past few years. West Kutai had received only Rp 10 billion of the amount, Rama said.

In Papua, Puncak Jaya regency officials questioned why it had received only Rp 3 billion of the annual royalty paid by copper and gold miner PT Freeport Indonesia to the government. The amount was much lower than the Rp 13 billion annually received by Puncak Jaya before the minister of energy and mineral resources issued in 2001 a decree on mining royalty, they said. (*)