S. Kalimantan Governor threatens to restrict coal sales

South Kalimantan governor Rudy Arifin has threatened to ban coal mining companies from selling their coal to other province or to foreign countries in order to fulfill the province's power plants need, Antara news agency reported.

His threat was made after a meeting Thursday with the executives of the local branch of state-owned electricity company PLN who complained that the shortage of the coal supply had forced the company to cut off power supply in a number of areas in the province.

He acknowledged that the local coal miners had preferred to sell their coal production to buyers from other provinces or from overseas in order to benefit from higher prices. "But this practice should be stopped so that the local buyers especially PLN would no longer suffer a shortage of coal supply," he said.

"This is certainly not fair for the local people. I therefore will try to find a solution so that South Kalimantan as the third largest coal producer in the country will receive a better benefit from the coal mining sector," he said. (*)