Bukit Asam given 1 year to return state funds

Bukit Asam given 1 year to return state funds

JAKARTA (JP): The government has given state-owned coal miner
PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam a year to deliver funds collected
from private coal-mining contractors, an official said yesterday.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy's secretary-general, Umar
Said, said yesterday that Presidential Decree No. 75, 1996, asked
Bukit Asam to deliver the remaining coal funds to state treasury
by Sept. 25, one year after the decree was issued.

The decree, he said, had concluded the dispute over which
party was entitled to keep the funds.

The funds were collected from private coal-mining companies,
which had to hand over 13.5 percent of their output to the
government.

Bukit Asam was originally entitled to collect theses
royalties and concession fees from coal-mining companies as its
own income. But since 1993 the funds have been considered state
revenue and should, therefore, be transferred to the government.

Umar said Bukit Asam had collected Rp 413 billion (US$175
million) in coal funds from 1993 to 1996.

A dispute surfaced last year when Minister of Mines and Energy
I.B. Sudjana was reported to have ordered Bukit Asam to transfer
the funds to his official account in the first quarter of 1994.

Sudjana said the transfer was necessary because Bukit Asam had
been using the funds inefficiently.

But Bukit Asam was willing to transfer only Rp 50 billion,
arguing that the money should not be transferred to the minister
but to the state treasury, which is supervised by the minister of
finance.

The coal funds in Sudjana's official accounts have risen with
interest to Rp 68 billion.

President Soeharto settled the dispute late last year, issuing
the decree which ordered Bukit Asam to transfer all the funds to
the government.

Umar said the presidential decree stated that private coal-
mining companies had to give the government 13.5 percent of the
value of their coal output in cash. Some of the funds should be
transferred to the minister of mines and energy's account and the
remainder to the state treasury.

Umar said the Minister/State Secretary's office, Ministry of
Finance and Ministry of Mines and Energy would draft a ruling to
determine what percentage of the funds would go to the state
treasury and what percentage would go to the official account of
the minister of mines and energy.

Once the ruling had become effective, Umar said, the Ministry
of Mines and Energy would transfer the Rp 68 billion, minus the
ministry's share, in Sudjana's official account to the state
treasury.

"For us, there is no problem as to which agency shall keep the
money -- the Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Mines and Energy.
What is important for us is that, regardless of who keeps the
money, it is used for its proper purpose," he said.

The ministry urgently needed the funds to explore new coal
mines and develop ways to convert coal to gas, he said.

"If some day we run out of natural gas, should we buy gas from
overseas to make fertilizer? That's why we need to know how to
turn coal into gas," he said. (jsk)