The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources emphasizes the importance of coal utilization to achieve the energy sovereignty, particularly related to the change of paradigm in coal management, from seeing them as a commodity to generate state revenue to utilizing them for energy source which contributes to 30% of national energy mix in 2050. This was delivered in the discussion of “Problem Mapping and Coal Governance in Indonesia” (22/2) ago.

84% of Indonesian coal in 2016 is exported abroad and only 16% is utilized for domestic. Hersonyo Priyo Wibowo, Head of Supervision of Production and Coal Production Operations, Directorate General of Mineral and Coal (DG Minerba), Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), affirmed the direction of Indonesia’s coal policy as stated in National Mid Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2015-2019. The government will focus onto several things such as reducing coal exports, regulating Domestic Market Obligation (DMO), licensing arrangement, Work Plan and Budget (RKAB) supervision, and increasing value-added of coal in Indonesia.

In order to achieve the national energy mix target, Hersonyo said one thing to be implemented is controlling production by limiting the production in 400 million tons of coal in 2019. However, the trend said otherwise. The realization of coal production have always been higher than the target of RPJMN 2015-2019. Hersonyo argued that this is due to the unlikeliness of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to stop the permits that are in the production stage.

Responded to this, Kanti, one of the participants from Article 33 questioned the commitment of the government to implement RPJMN, especially on the production control policy. “As mentioned in RPJMN as well as National Energy Plan (RUEN), the government have to limit coal production as much as 400 million tons in 2019. Ideally, the government have formulated the strategy to get there, including controlling permit issuance. It will be contradictive, if the government is aiming to control the production in one hand, but in another hand the government is not putting a brake in the permit policy”, said Kanti.

The government is aware of the need to improve monitoring function. DG Minerba is planning to develop the capacity of mining inspector as well as follow up the delegation mining inspector from the regional to the central government. Furthermore, the government will also monitor the surveyor’s report.

Epa Kartika, the representative of Division of Research and Development of Anti-Corruption Agency (KPK) reveals the problem revolving around the surveyor’s performance. “The witness survey conducted by Research and Development Center of Mineral and Coal Technology showed that 80% of surveyor’s report is not conducted accordingly, including the gap in the quality and quantity of exported coal data. This issue is clearly indicated the potential of revenue lost, because those data are used to calculate the financial obligation”, said Epa.

To optimize the monitoring function, the government has implemented real-time coal production monitoring and trading systems. “The concept is that any coal truck passing through the weighbridge will automatically change the amount on the dashboard. To this date, there are already 53 PKP2Bs already registered in the monitoring system and will soon be synchronized with E-PNBP from the MEMR,” explained Mr. Hersonyo.