SuaraRiau.co – The polemic over Riau’s oil and gas Revenue Sharing Fund (DBH) persists. After the Meranti Regent threw his tantrum at the Ministry of Finance a few days ago, the Governor of Riau, who felt the unfairness on DBH from the central government, was conveyed in one online media.

This has received attention from various parties. One is from the Civil Society Organization (CSO) Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Indonesia.

CSO EITI Indonesia Rocky Ramadani said there is a need for transparency or disclosure of oil and gas production data (lifting) by each stakeholder, namely the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, SKK Migas, KKKS, Ministry of Finance (23/1/23).

He added that so far, the bottleneck of the DBH issue is due to communication and information from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, SKK Migas, KKKS, and the Ministry of Finance to the Oil and Gas Producing Regions is challenging to obtain.

“The data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources used by the Ministry of Finance as the basis for the distribution of DBH SDA is often the question. That is then used as the Regent’s argument regarding lifting data, for example, using SKK data, Director General of Oil and Gas, or which data. This should be clarified to the Regions,” concluded Rocky.

Nevertheless, Rocky said, the Regional Government must also be proactive in obtaining and synchronizing information from the data.

“Don’t just wait. The Riau and Regency / City Regional governments, especially producing regions, must take the initiative to get accurate data and information related to the implications of the Central and Regional Financial Relations laws,” said Rocky.

Rocky asked to what extent the Regions understand the implications of HKPD Law number 1 of 2022, which concerns changes in the natural resource DBH formula. Plus, the government’s regulation still needs to be completed.

“Of course, this will add to the complexity of oil and gas DBH. The Ministry of Finance must explain to the Regions which formula must be used in calculating the oil and gas DBH. Is it the new formula or the old formula, considering the government regulation has not been completed,” said Rocky, who is also an FKPMR administrator.

Moreover, Rocky said the HKPD Law states that Natural Resource’s revenue sharing fund is not only for producing regions but also regions adjacent to producing areas.

So far, according to Rocky, what has happened at the DBH SDA Reconciliation Forum is that there is an urgency where the Regency Government needs to be more involved, as only the Provincial Bapenda is involved. Even if the Regency Government is concerned, it is only a means of socializing the Center to the Regions.

“In the future, of course, this must be a priority for the Central Government so that the reconciliation forum must involve the Regional Government, especially the producing regions so that there are no more regional governments that feel the distribution is unfair,” Rocky stated.