Indonesia expects to increase coal production by up to 20 million tons next year as lawmakers insist that the government must book higher non-tax revenue from the mining sector in 2010.
Bambang Setiawan, the director general for coal, minerals, and geothermal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said the House of Representatives’ budget committee had asked the government to set a non-tax revenue target of Rp 15 trillion (US$1.48 billion) from the mining sector in 2010.
“The government [had] earlier proposed the revenue at Rp 14 trillion, which is unchanged from this year’s target.
“But, as the House’s budget committee want the revenue to be Rp 15 trillion, we expect that next year we can slightly increase the production,” Bambang said Thursday.
Coal and other mining commodities contribute to non-tax state revenue mainly through royalty payments. Coal contributes the biggest single contribution to state revenues from mining commodities.
The royalty payments will then be shared between the central and regional governments involved.
For this year, the country expects to produce 230 million tons of coal.
Find Article by Date