Merdeka.com – National Coordinator of Publish What You Pay (PWYP), Maryati Abdullah, admitted that she did not agree with the government’s policy regarding the export of concentrate. The policy is that the government still permits the export of raw mining without being processed domestically on condition that it pays export duty calculated from the percentage of smelter construction.

“If small companies have a progress of above 80 percent, while large companies have a progress of above 30 percent, our criticism of the export duty tariff should not only smelter progress, the evaluation is not strict, if now only 7.5 percent (average development) year in the future there must be an increase, “said Maryati Abdullah at Tjikini Lima Resto, Jakarta, Sunday (9/25).

In addition, he also criticized the policy of easing exports which were considered detrimental to smelter entrepreneurs in the country. With the easing, mining companies become lazy to build smelters or work together in building smelters.

“So they (the smelter businessman) were betrayed by the government with the opening of a concentrate permit, the problem of lack of electricity lacking capital can be sought by the government, but this concentrate permit that cannot be relaxed, it can lead to economic injustice, and I worry that it will cause a bad investment climate in the country, “Maryati said.

Previously, the Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, assessed that Indonesia’s economic conditions that were beginning to show improvement had the potential to boost the domestic downstream industry and create higher local content.

According to Sri Mulyani, what must be considered now is not how the government is downstreaming and creating a lot of local content, but rather how the government makes industries capable of carrying out these activities in a sustainable manner.

“The issue is not how the idea of ​​downstreaming is, but how we form an industry that remains competitive and open. This is one of the factors in disciplining companies in Indonesia and in other countries, “Sri said at the Indonesian Parliament building, Jakarta, Wednesday (8/24).

The inefficiency of a company will affect the downstream process and the creation of local content in Indonesia. And of course this will be detrimental to the country, bearing in mind the government continues to provide capital but the company continues to suffer losses.

“We do not want to form an industry that becomes very small because it is continuously protected. What happens is we protect companies that are so inefficient that they even make many people suffer, “he added.

In Media, Media Coverage | PWYP Indonesia | September 25th , 2016