Wednesday, November 27, 2013
“EMR Vice Minister: Transparency must continue to be encouraged.”
Presidential Regulation No. 26 of 2010 concerning Transparency of State Revenues and Regional Revenues Obtained from Extractive Industries is evidence of the commitment of the Indonesian government to realize transparency of payments and revenues from the extractive industry sector. The regulation requires companies operating in the oil, gas, and mining sectors to submit a report to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). In Indonesia, the EITI secretariat is domiciled in the Ministry of Economy.
This year is the second period the obligation to submit transparency reports is carried out. However, there are still many companies that failed to submit the report. Publish What You Pay Indonesia (PWYP), a Civil Society Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Extractive Resources Management, noted that only 60% of companies submitted reports. As of early last week, out of a total of 264 companies that were required to report, there were still around 105 companies that had not yet submitted them.
PWYP National Coordinator Maryati Abdullah explained that companies that have not submitted reports vary according to the ownership of the permit. He detailed, there was one Mineral Contract of Work (KK) company, namely a Malaysian company, Koba Tin. There are also nine coal mining concessions (PKP2B) companies. In addition, there are 14 IUP companies with royalties above 25 billion rupiahs. Most are IUP companies with royalties between Rp. 2 to Rp. 25 billion, which is a total of 81 companies.
“The type of report that must be submitted by the company includes information on the amount of state revenue paid to the government in the form of both tax and non-tax as required by EITI,” Maryati explained, Tuesday (11/26).
PWYP Advocacy Coordinator, Aryanto Nugroho added, the timeliness in submitting reports is a form of the company’s seriousness to be transparent. Therefore, he considered, this delay was a serious problem. He warned, Indonesia had not yet met the highest standards, which included the compliant category of the implementation of the EITI global standard because it was still too late in submitting reports. “Especially in publishing EITI reports periodically and on time in sequential time series,” said Aryanto.
Aryanto urged the company and the government to immediately move to improve the achievement of standards. According to him, the most appropriate momentum was when preparing the EITI report for the 2010-2011 period. At present, the preparation of the report is still in the completion stage by the EITI Indonesia Secretariat.
Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Susilo Siswoutomo said the Indonesian government was open to accelerating the implementation of EITI. He warned Indonesia was the first country to implement EITI in Southeast Asia. In fact, the government’s commitment to optimally realize EITI can be seen from the initiative of the Indonesian team to include it in the action plan for implementing mineral cooperation in the ASEAN region. “We are open. We will push to the maximum, “said Susilo.
At the 3rd Ministerial Meeting of ASEAN Minerals in the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Minerals / AMMin last year in Hanoi, the Indonesian delegation submitted a proposal to include the EITI in the 2011-2015 ASEAN Mineral Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP). The proposal was accepted so that EITI became one of the agenda of action plans for the implementation of mineral cooperation in the ASEAN region.
Regarding the delay in the submission of reports by some companies, Susilo said the cause must be seen first. He said, in 2009 during the first preparation, EITI Indonesia did not send reporting forms to 76 partners from 50 KKKS. As a result, some of these partners did not submit reports. “The point is we must encourage transparency,” he concluded.
Source: Hukumonline