KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. Coal production and sales are caught in several dilemmas. On the one hand, it is hampered by environmental problems and sustainable availability; on the other hand, it is necessary to meet market needs and state revenues.

In terms of availability, based on data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), in 2016, coal reserves were only 28.45 billion tons. Although the reserve data increased to around 37 billion tons after reconciliation, this number is still relatively small.

Director of Energy, Mineral and Mining Resources, Bappenas J. Rizal Primana, said that Indonesia’s reserves are only about 3% of the world’s total coal reserves. However, Indonesia is listed as part of the largest exporting country in the world.

Director of Coal Development and Business of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Sri Raharjo revealed, with such reserves, Indonesia’s coal reserves could run out in 2086. This would happen if production after 2019 was constant at 400 million tons and coal reserves did not increase. Meanwhile, if reserves increase by 1% per year, it can last up to 2139.

Therefore, Rizal said, in the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJM) 2020-2024, Bappenas will emphasize more about the limit of coal production. Moreover, based on the National Energy General Plan (RUEN), coal production in 2018 should be in the range of 403 million tons.

“Production will definitely continue to be reduced, but we cannot calculate (the details of the reduction), but in the RPJM and RUEN, the benchmark is 400 million tons,” said Rizal in an airport discussion, Thursday (4/10).

However, this year, the national coal production was 485 million tons. That, too, was added to the 21.9 million tonnes. As a result, this year’s production target is 506.9 million tons.

According to Sri Raharjo, several factors are taken into consideration so that production figures can experience swelling. “There are other factors (to increase the amount of production), such as an increase (company) from exploration to production, and to increase foreign exchange. That must also be considered,” he said.

Sri claims the determination of the 2019 RKAB will be even tighter. Not only from the study results and Amdal, the side of financial readiness, including by looking at financial obligations such as deposits to the state, if the company has not completed anything. “If someone is in arrears, the RKAB will not be tested,” he added.

Meanwhile, according to the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) Executive Director, Hendra Sinadia, the control of coal production needs to be seen from a broad dimension. Not only in terms of conservation but also market needs, investment, and state revenue.

Not to mention if there are companies that have prepared long-term planning. Hendra emphasized that it is necessary to pay careful attention to production control because production and supply are also related to prices.

“The impact is not simple; on the one hand, it can be the price. However, for business actors who already have long-term planning, the production will continue to be reduced, it will have an immediate impact on companies and state revenues as well, “he explained.

Indeed, coal still contributes significantly to non-tax state revenue (PNBP). Data until mid-September 2018, PNBP from the mineral and coal sector has reached IDR 33.55 trillion. Of this amount, coal contributed 70%, while 30% was contributed from the mineral sector.

The details, Rp. 6.09 trillion from minerals and Rp. 27.4 trillion from the coal sector, consisting of fixed fees of Rp. 182.95 billion, royalties of Rp. 14.4 trillion, and sales of mining products of Rp. 12.8 trillion.

However, according to Firdaus Ilyas, coordinator of the Research Division of the Indonesia Corruption Time (ICW), state losses are indications in the coal sector. In the 2006-2016 period, ICW found an unreported value or value indicated as not being reported up to around the US $ 27 billion.

“We compare the notification data of export shipments from Indonesia with data from the buyer country, so port to port, custom to custom, to more than 40 export destination countries. Is it true or not, for example, you bought 10, did the number change or not? So the difference is that much,” explained Firdaus.

According to him, the difference or indication of several such losses could occur due to the unsynchronized data from the related institutions and weak Supervision.

Responding to this, Hendra did not rule out the possibility that this could happen. Hendra also agreed that data synchronization and weak Supervision were the obstacles. “Supervision and data synchronization need to be improved. However, there are 2,500 companies with permits, so controlling them is not easy,” said Hendra.

Meanwhile, Sri claimed that his party was pushing for tightening Supervision. For example, through e-PNBP and online-based applications, oblige all companies in the production stage to provide daily reports on the level of production and marketing.

“Even if there is a company whose data processing is automatic, we ask that it go directly to the ESDM system, let it be real-time,” he said.