Government Prepares Presidential Regulation to Overhaul Tin Governance
The government is preparing a draft Presidential Regulation specifically on tin as an effort to improve the governance of the national tin commodity.
This was conveyed in a press conference regarding the integrated resolution of legal issues and the operational area of PT Timah, at the office of the Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections, on Tuesday (18/8/2026).
Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra explained that the drafting process for the Presidential Regulation has begun and the initial draft has been submitted to President Prabowo Subianto and the State Secretariat.
The government has also asked the Directorate General of Legislation to accelerate the drafting process of the regulation.
Until the Presidential Regulation is issued, the government is temporarily still allowing PT Timah (Persero) Tbk (TINS) to purchase tin circulating in the community. This decision is intended to resolve legal issues in the community and ease the heated situation around PT Timah’s operational areas. As is known, last week there was an arson attack on a PT Timah representative office in East Belitung.
“While waiting for this Presidential Regulation to be completed, the meeting earlier decided to form a small team led by Prof. Otto Hasibuan, Deputy Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections, to formulate policy steps and legality for PT Timah to purchase tin circulating in the community until the completion of the Presidential Regulation related to tin issues,” Yusril revealed.
The formation of the small team is expected to serve as a temporary solution while waiting for the special tin regulation to be completed. The small team is tasked with formulating policy steps and the legality of purchasing tin from the community.
Yusril emphasised that the tin issue is a serious matter because it involves economic interests, legal matters, and community welfare. The meeting was also attended by the President Director of PT Timah (Persero) Tbk (TINS) and the President Director of MIND ID, Ma’ruf Sjamsoeddin.
On that occasion, the former Minister of State Secretary said that Indonesia has a strategic position in the global tin industry. In fact, Indonesia is said to be one of the main countries that still has tin production, while several other countries such as Bolivia, Malaysia, and Thailand are said to have stopped their tin production.
Domestically, tin production is also concentrated in the Bangka Belitung Islands Province.
However, this great potential is considered not yet optimally managed. According to him, this condition means Indonesia has not been able to determine world tin prices despite having large resources.
“As a producer, we must determine world tin prices. Do not let others play with us. We must restore order internally, and smuggling must not happen again,” he asserted.
Therefore, the government will push for improvements in tin governance from upstream to downstream. One of the issues of concern is the practice of tin smuggling.
The government even highlighted the existence of a neighbouring country that is both a producer and exporter of world tin, despite being considered not to have significant tin mining resources.
“Even though there is no tin mine there. Where does it get tin? From the smuggled goods in our country,” he said.