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ampant illegal tin exports and indecisiveness on the part of the government in regulating the tin trade have been deemed the cause of losses in Bangka Belitung (Babel) province, a councilor has said.

Apart from the insignificant amount of potential revenue from tin exports, environmental destruction from tin mining has also reached alarming levels as it has not been offset by reclamation efforts.

The head of the Babel Legislative Council'€™s (DPRD) Tin Trade Arrangement Working Committee, Eka Mulya Putra, told The Jakarta Post that based on data gathered by the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) from 2004 to 2013, the volume of illegal tin exports of 301,800 metric tons had caused the state to suffer losses of US$362,750,000.

In reference to Trade Ministerial Decree No. 32/2013 on tin exports, tin ingots can only be exported if they are traded through an official bourse and have a purity of 99.9 percent.

'€œWe are waiting for the Indonesian Navy to bust illegal exports of tin that have caused the state to lose funds and sovereignty. The government must restructure the tin trade [...] so as to prevent loopholes that could be taken advantage of by illegal exporters,'€ Eka said recently after a meeting with officials from the Navy and the customs agency, as well as Tin Trade Arrangement Working Committee members, at the Indonesian naval command base in Batam, Riau Islands.

According to Eka, the Babel legislature formed a working committee in early April in response to the Navy'€™s seizure of 134 containers of tin ingots that were to be exported to Singapore in March this year. The bust was deemed effective as a form of '€œshock therapy'€ regarding the widespread nature of illegal tin exports from Babel.

'€œWe are concerned about the loophole being exploited by illegal exporters in Trade Ministerial Decree No. 32/2013 on tin exports. The ministerial regulation is not clear; consequently, producing regions like Babel are still being disadvantaged,'€ said Eka, who is also Babel council'€™s Commission III chairman.

According to Eka, no less than 20 tin mining companies are operating in Babel, and mining activities have caused severe environmental destruction. The companies do not set aside any funds for reclamation, which should be given to the regional administration.

'€œWe expect the recommendation from the council to be issued by the end of the month so as to urge the provincial and central government to readjust the tin trade arrangement and not deprive Babel of its funds and environment,'€ said Eka.

The illegal tin export trade came to light when naval boat KRI Pulau Rusa, under the Western Fleet, intercepted a tugboat carrying 134 containers of tin bars destined for Singapore, ahead of export to neighboring countries without following trade regulations, according to navy intelligence.

Based on an Indonesian Navy investigation, at an average price of $22,000 per metric ton of tin ingots, the total value of the tin carried by the boat could have amounted to $58.9 million.