Sumbawa wants NNT to pay higher royalty
Thursday, December 7 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The Sumbawa district parliament of the West Nusa Tenggara province is demanding copper and gold mining firm PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT) to pay a higher mining royalty.
Deputy speaker of the Sumbawa House of Representatives Husni Djibril said that according to the government ruling (PP 13/2000), NNT must pay a 4 percent royalty, but according to the mining contract of work (KK) the company was only supposed to pay a 2 percent royalty.
The PP stipulates that the royalty for copper mining is 4 percent, while the royalty for gold mining is 3.75 percent.
"Let's say that since Newmont is operating based on the KK, the company may not want to shift even an inch from the KK. But we want to seek for the remaining 2 percent opportunity in the form of other means," Husni told Petromindo.com in a brief interview following a meeting with the director general of mining in Jakarta.
He did not clearly say what the other means would be.
"The important thing here is that we expect Newmont Nusa Tenggara to understand that Sumbawa supports them," he said, adding that the Sumbawa people and administration also expect in return NNT to be able to understand the needs of Sumbawa.
"We're trying to fight for the aspiration of the (Sumbawa) people. But this doesn't mean that NNT has not paid their obligation. They have fulfilled it," Husni added.
He said that Sumbawa had received Rp 17 billion (US$1=Rp 9,500) in NNT royalty for the first two quarters of this year, and the company had paid the royalty for the third quarter but it was still held by the ministry of finance.
He said that his visit to Jakarta was to ensure that Sumbawa immediately receive the NNT mining royalty currently held by the ministry of finance. Under the new government ruling, the mining royalty would be directly paid to the respective region instead via the ministry of finance. The new ruling will be effective starting January 2001.
He said that the visit was also aimed at fighting for other aspects. He pointed out as an example that the Sumbawa administration wanted a portion of the income tax paid by mining companies to Jakarta.
"We want to have what have been our rights," he said. (Epin)