House to go ahead with oil bill
House to go ahead with oil bill
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives will go ahead with
its plan next month to enact the oil and gas bill proposed by the
government, despite protests from oil-rich regencies, several
legislators said.
Julius Bobo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-Perjuangan) faction at the House and Tunggul Sirait of the
Love the Nation Democratic faction told The Jakarta Post that it
was impossible to make substantial changes because deliberation
of the bill had been concluded.
"It is now too late to accommodate the regencies' demands
because the debating process for the bill has been completed,"
Julius said.
"We are now at the stage of putting the finishing touches on
the draft law before delivering it to a plenary session for
approval in mid-October," Julius added.
The Consultative Forum of Oil Producing Regencies earlier
protested the oil and gas bill, demanding the legislators
postpone the planned mid-October plenary session to pass the bill
into law.
The forum urged legislators to establish a special agency
called the Coordinating Board of National Oil and Gas in which
the forum would have a representative. There is no such agency
mentioned in the oil and gas bill.
The regencies demanded this board be assigned to watch over an
independent body, called the Executive Body, which under the bill
will take over state oil and gas company Pertamina's role of
supervising and managing the country's oil and gas industry.
The bill aims to liberalize the country's oil and gas sector,
lift Pertamina's monopoly within the sector and turn the state
company into a profit-making limited liability company.
Under the existing Pertamina Law of 1971, Pertamina, on behalf
of the government, regulates, supervises and manages the
country's oil and gas industry.
Irianto M.S Syaifuddin, chairman of the regency forum, earlier
warned that any rejection of the demand by the House would create
dissatisfaction among people in regencies and could subsequently
cause disturbances at the oil and gas operations in their
respective areas.
The forum claims to have 45 regency and five municipality
members in 14 provinces.
Tunggul said the legislators and the government had reached
"in principle" agreement on all major issues in the oil and gas
bill and that the passing of the bill into a law by the House was
just a matter of time.
"In principle, the House has approved the bill and it is only
perfecting the language of the bill before officially passing it
into a law," Tunggul said.
Agusman Effendy of the Golkar faction also dismissed hopes
that the House would review the oil and gas bill.
"It's too late. We received a lot of input about the oil and
gas bill from various parties, including provincial councils,
non-governmental organizations, experts, academics and the
governors association, which was expected to also voice the
regencies' aspirations.
The bill was submitted by the government last February. (11)
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives will go ahead with
its plan next month to enact the oil and gas bill proposed by the
government, despite protests from oil-rich regencies, several
legislators said.
Julius Bobo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-Perjuangan) faction at the House and Tunggul Sirait of the
Love the Nation Democratic faction told The Jakarta Post that it
was impossible to make substantial changes because deliberation
of the bill had been concluded.
"It is now too late to accommodate the regencies' demands
because the debating process for the bill has been completed,"
Julius said.
"We are now at the stage of putting the finishing touches on
the draft law before delivering it to a plenary session for
approval in mid-October," Julius added.
The Consultative Forum of Oil Producing Regencies earlier
protested the oil and gas bill, demanding the legislators
postpone the planned mid-October plenary session to pass the bill
into law.
The forum urged legislators to establish a special agency
called the Coordinating Board of National Oil and Gas in which
the forum would have a representative. There is no such agency
mentioned in the oil and gas bill.
The regencies demanded this board be assigned to watch over an
independent body, called the Executive Body, which under the bill
will take over state oil and gas company Pertamina's role of
supervising and managing the country's oil and gas industry.
The bill aims to liberalize the country's oil and gas sector,
lift Pertamina's monopoly within the sector and turn the state
company into a profit-making limited liability company.
Under the existing Pertamina Law of 1971, Pertamina, on behalf
of the government, regulates, supervises and manages the
country's oil and gas industry.
Irianto M.S Syaifuddin, chairman of the regency forum, earlier
warned that any rejection of the demand by the House would create
dissatisfaction among people in regencies and could subsequently
cause disturbances at the oil and gas operations in their
respective areas.
The forum claims to have 45 regency and five municipality
members in 14 provinces.
Tunggul said the legislators and the government had reached
"in principle" agreement on all major issues in the oil and gas
bill and that the passing of the bill into a law by the House was
just a matter of time.
"In principle, the House has approved the bill and it is only
perfecting the language of the bill before officially passing it
into a law," Tunggul said.
Agusman Effendy of the Golkar faction also dismissed hopes
that the House would review the oil and gas bill.
"It's too late. We received a lot of input about the oil and
gas bill from various parties, including provincial councils,
non-governmental organizations, experts, academics and the
governors association, which was expected to also voice the
regencies' aspirations.
The bill was submitted by the government last February. (11)