Committee to deliberate mining bill formed

Committee to deliberate mining bill formed

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives has established a new special
committee to deliberate a draft law on mineral and coal mining,
which was proposed by the government.

The House plenary session officiated the special committee,
comprising 50 members from all factions, on Tuesday.

"The issues that need to be discussed include mining licenses,
mining areas, state income and non-taxable income," said Ramson
Siagian, a committee member from the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI-P).

He said the committee would also discuss the possibility of
introducing a limitation on the width of coal mining areas.

"The demand for coal is rising, and area limitation is needed
to ensure that there is no monopoly in the sector," he added.
"The limit should be specifically set within the law."

The committee would also consider setting a domestic market
obligation to secure domestic coal supplies, said Ramson.

The mining bill committee includes 12 members from the Golkar
faction, 10 from PDI-P, four from the Prosperous Justice Party
(PKS) and two from the Democratic Star Pioneer Party (BPD).

The National Development Party (PPP), Democratic Party (PD),
National Mandate Party (PAN) and National Awakening Party (PKB)
factions each have five representatives while the Reform Star
Party (PBR) and Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) factions have one
each.

The proposed law on mining will replace the existing law that
was enacted some 28 years ago, and will see several significant
changes.

Among others, the new bill will incorporate the role of local
administrations in issuing licenses subsequent to the
implementation of the regional autonomy law.

An article in the draft law will also stipulate that all
companies holding licenses for operation and production must
process part of their output domestically.

The bill also gives specific time frames for exploration and
exploitation contract periods, which are eight years and 23
years, respectively.

After that, each extension of exploitation contracts is
limited to 10 years.