The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) estimates that the potential state losses could reach the US $ 677 million or around Rp. 9.02 trillion.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) found allegations of corruption in coal export activities in 2015. The reason is that there is a difference in the volume of coal exports between the Ministry of Trade and Customs, which can cause potential losses to the state.

Chairman of the Corruption Prevention Team for Natural Resources of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Dian Patria, said that in 2015, Customs and Excise recorded coal exports of only 390 million tons. Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of Trade is only 349 million tons.

With this difference, The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) estimates that the potential state losses could reach US $ 677 million or around Rp. 9.02 trillion. “It could be that behind the anomaly, there is corruption. The only challenge is the bribery, and the permission has been looking for proof for a long time,” he said in Jakarta, Monday (31/7).

The difference in data did not occur only once. According to Dian, in 2010, there was also a difference in coal export volume data between the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and data from the World Coal Institute (WCI).

WCI data states that Indonesia’s coal exports in 2010 amounted to 298 million tons. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources claims that export data for that year was only 166 million tons. It means that there is a difference of 132 million tons.

It did not stop there; Dian said that The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was currently still tracking coal export data from the two agencies for the last three years. Even 2016 and 2017 data were also included in the search. Only until now, it cannot be opened to the public.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) asked the institutions’ ministry to uniform records to avoid these anomalies. “If I look at this, current data is still on each of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Trade and Customs as well. So it’s not inline, “said Dian.

Besides, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) encourages the existence of a task force (task force) to curb and not arbitrarily grant export permits to mining entrepreneurs. Moreover, the permit is given to mining entrepreneurs who are not clear of problems.

If there is no supervision, mining companies that are not yet free from problems can obtain export permits from specific individuals in an affiliated institution. One example is the granting of export permits to mining entrepreneurs who are in conservation forest areas.

They should not have been able to get permission from the relevant ministries, and the task force could control this. “The thing is this could have the potential for corruption,” said Dian.

The chaos in coal management has also received attention from Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia. The National Coordinator of PWYP Indonesia, Maryati Abdullah, said that the issuance of coal export permits increased in the period 2001 to 2010.

The number of coal mining licenses originally in 2001 was only 750 licenses increased dramatically to 10,000 licenses in 2010. The massive issuance of coal mining permits was due to the unsynchronized transition period policies from the central government to regional autonomy.

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“This is our challenge. How can we regulate permits and control the production rate,” said Maryati.