Commission VII DPR Requests Transparency Regarding Coal Stock

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VII DPR Kardaya Warnika asked PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to be transparent regarding coal stock in order to meet the needs of power plants.

This was conveyed by Kardaya during a hearing with the Commission VII DPR with the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif and his staff, Thursday, January 13.

The reason is, on December 24, 2021, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif visited the Saguling hydroelectric power plant (PLTA) to ensure the reliability of electricity supply to welcome the Christmas and New Year 2022 moments and PLN ensures the supply of raw materials for power plants is safe.

"In fact, three days later, they stated that they would blackout. I think that the President Director of PLN has lied to the government," said Kardaya.

Then, Kardaya also regretted the government's discourse to abolish the current coal DMO scheme. According to him, this discourse is not appropriate. The special price for coal supplied to domestic power plants is planned to be abolished and PLN buys coal at market prices. However, PLN will receive a subsidy from the BLU that will be formed.

"If you use market prices, there are no more DMOs, it means you don't understand the purpose of DMOs. How come DMOs are at market prices? It's the same as Chinese companies coming here. Because this concerns the issue of subsidies and generation costs. If tariffs go up, it's the people's suffering," he explained.

The government is currently preparing a Public Service Agency (BLU) scheme for the coal levy. In the future, coal producers or coal sellers to PLN will be subject to a levy in the form of a price difference from the coal price of 70 US dollars per ton.

This policy was decided by the government so that the problem of coal depletion in domestic steam power plants (PLTU) would no longer occur.

On the other hand, the government has also decided to abolish the free on board (FOB) sales scheme for domestic coal supplies. All purchases will be made under a cost in insurance and freight (CIF) scheme.