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Jokowi cancels plan to revoke coal DMO
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An excavator is seen here clawing out dirt in South Sumatra to collect coal from a mining site. (JP/Indra Harsaputra)
P
resident Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Tuesday has canceled the government’s plan to revoke the domestic market obligation (DMO) for coal producers as a means to help state-owned electricity company PLN maintain current electricity rates.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said revoking the government policy on the coal DMO would require a lot of effort, as it was stipulated in law, while the price cap was stated in a government regulation (PP).
"The President decided to leave [DMO rule] as it is. There is no new PP and we have same price mechanism. DMO is a mandate of Law No. 4/2009 and the $70 price cap is regulated by a PP," he said at Bogor Palace in West Java.
Prevailing regulations require coal producing companies to allocate 25 percent of their production to fuel power plants for supplying electricity to PLN at a price cap of $70 per ton of coal.
PLN president director Sofyan Basir said that the company needed around 92 million tons of coal per year, around 20 percent of national coal output.
"The market price of coal is now $120 per ton, while the price in the state budget is set at $68 to $70 per ton. If the DMO is revoked, the [resulting] subsidy would be enormous, perhaps up to Rp 30 trillion [US$2.08 billion]," he said.
Last week, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the government would revoke the DMO policy for coal in response to the increasing coal price. (bbn)
