Aceh leaders call state revenue allocation unfair

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh met House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais on Wednesday to lodge a complaint against what he called the unfair allocation of state revenue from the exploration of natural resources in the oil-rich province.

After separate meetings with Akbar and Amien, the Governor, accompanied by a number of councillors from the provincial legislative council, said he was here to seek political support from the House and the Assembly for the province to gain a greater portion of the revenue than the government now that the province had special autonomy.

Mursyid Minorsa, deputy chairman of the Aceh provincial legislature, said Aceh could not accept the Rp 1.8 trillion allocated by the central government because according to calculations based on Law No 18/2001 on special autonomy, the province should receive Rp 2.9 trillion for the 2002 fiscal year.

"Most Acehnese people know that the province's income from natural resources this fiscal year is Rp 2.9 trillion. And so far, both the finance ministry and state oil company Pertamina have yet to give clarification about why the province earned less," he said.

According to the law, Aceh receives 80 percent from the general mining sector, 15 percent from oil and 30 percent from gas.

"So far, the government has not disclosed the total revenue from the mining sector," he said.

House Speaker Akbar acknowledged that the central administration had promised to allocate Rp 2.9 trillion to the Aceh administration and said he did not understand why the province had received less.

The smaller amount from the fiscal balance has proved to be a problem for the provincial administration because it figured the Rp 2.9 trillion into its 2002 budget.

According to Akbar, the discrepancy had created conflicting opinions between the central administration and the Acehnese.

Ahmad Farhan Hamid, an Acehnese legislator of the National Mandate Party, confirmed that the visit was an effort to get political support from the legislative body to pressure the central government into complying with the law.

"Even in the early implementation of special autonomy, the government has violated the law, indicating an absence of commitment to the law, which it made," he said.