Caltex reaffirms Rp17t in fees to govt

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian government received a total of US$2.06 billion or Rp 17 trillion in taxes and oil production share from PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia in 1998 and not Rp 6.2 trillion, as claimed by Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto, the American oil contractor reaffirmed on Thursday.

Caltex's vice president Robert Brail reaffirmed the amount at a meeting with Riau legislators, officials and students in Pekanbaru who asked for further clarification about the controversy over the different figures.

Riau legislators and officials were surprised upon hearing at a meeting in Jakarta with minister Bambang on April 21 that the government received only Rp 6.24 trillion in oil receipts from mining contractors in Riau.

"The figure mentioned by the finance minister was unbelievable because Caltex alone paid Rp 17 trillion, while there are several other oil mining contractors operating in Riau," Chairuddin Mustafa, vice speaker of the Riau legislative council, was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

Brail explained that Caltex, Indonesia's largest oil producer, pumped up 760,000 barrels of oil a day in 1998.

As its daily production cost amounted to the equivalent of 80,000 barrels, 680,000 barrels remained to be divided between the government and Caltex on the basis of the 76:24 production sharing ratio.

"But we had still to transfer to the government (finance ministry) about half of our 24 percent production share in income and dividend tax payments," the Caltex executive said.

Hence, he added, the government's take of Caltex's oil production actually amounted to 88 percent.

Brail said Caltex handed to the government a total of 157.6 million barrels of crude oil in 1998.

"Calculated on the basis of the government-set average oil price in 1998, government receipts from Caltex in that year totaled $2.06 billion or Rp 17 trillion, including income and dividend taxes," Brail added.

Caltex's vice president for general affairs Tengku Amir Sulaiman denied the allegation that his company had colluded with Pertamina in relation to the different figures.

Mustafa said after the meeting that a Riau delegation would soon meet with executives of state-owned oil company Pertamina to clarify the controversy.

Pertamina is in charge of marketing the government's take of contractors' oil production. (vin)