It is widespread reported that following the issuance of Export Coal Trade Minister Regulation no 39/2014, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) will coordinate with the Ministry of Transportation (Ministry of Transportation) activities related to the establishment of special ports coal export commodities.
Among other issues, this policy raise comments and response from coal mining companies and the stakeholders as well. Present at the Workshop on Coal-Fired Power Generation in Southeast Asia and East Asia Region on September 3, 2014 in Hotel Kempinski Jakarta held by The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and supported by The International Energy Agency (IEA), Mr. Naresh Anchalia, President Director of PT Anugerah Karya Raya, shared his thoughts when interviewed by Coal Asia.
“In my perspective, this is a very good idea. We are so much concerned to any good intention by the government to make the policies on coal export better-regulated”, said Naresh.
Naresh reasoned as the mining practicioner, he found that so far many of coal export were still able to be handled although the related companies had not complied their royalty payment duty, or even worse, they come from non-Clean and Clear (C&C) companies. This results in the loss of government revenue and created the bad impact to the legal coal mining companies since maintaining the legal certificates and license also has its cost.
Meanwhile, Naresh also expressed that this policy need to be further explained and well-organized if it is to be applied into coal transportation field. Amid the coal price downturn, this good idea may drive into potentials of loss on behalf of the miners.
Focusing on the coal port, Naresh pointed two of his main concerns.
First, the control system need to be well-establised first. Any intention to stricten the administration of coal commodities export are good but the controlling system to supervise it is also a must. He argued that so far, eventhough the C&C regulations have been announced to comply, still some of Indonesian coal can be exported from the non- C&C coal mining companies. Many surveyors agency are still there to facilitate them. Hoping that this policy wil be better-regulated, the priority of course will be upon the companies who comply all the legal requirements.
Secondly, this coal port limitation has to give a deep consideration on the transportation cost. Any additional cost in terms of coal transportation will be bad news for the coal miners amid this unfriendly coal price. “As miner, we need to look carefully where this port limitation will drive to”, Naresh added.
PT Anugerah Karya Raya is the wholly subsidiary of AKR Coal, that operates five coal concessions in Central Kalimantan:
- PT Bumi Karunia Pertiwi
- PT Rizki Tambang Selaras
- PT Sarana Tambang Utama
- PT Mineral Tambang Wahana
- PT Baruta Abadi
Further information about this company can be seen at www.akr.co.id.
Elsewhere, inline with many miners concern on this coal port restriction, Minister of Trade Muhammad Luthfi told that the government still focuses on well-regulating the coal export policies. “It is sensitive now talking about coal in this sluggish market. There are far more to learn. We pity on the coal miners in East Kalimantan, for instance, if their coal transportation has to be polled to somewhere else far away than the current loading point,” he said. Additionally Luthfi expressed his appreciation towards the concern of coal miners who had struggled so far to maintain their C&C mining status.
The 14 ports are planned to be the main port each 7 ports in Kalimantan and Sumatra. For Kalimantan they will include East Kalimantan, Balikpapan Bay, Adang Bay, Berau dan Maliy, South Kalimantan , Tobaneo, Pulau Laut, Sungai Danau dan Batu Licin. As for Sumatra they cover Aceh, Padang Bay, Riau Bay, Jambi Bay, Bengkulu Port, Tanjung Api-Api dan Tarahan.
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