Responding To PT Timah's Corruption Case, Luhut Admits He Was Late In Pushing Digitalization

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan opened his voice about the corruption case in the trading system of the Mining Business Permit (IUP) area of PT Timah Tbk (TINS) which cost the state Rp271 trillion.

Luhut said this case was a lesson for the Indonesian government because it was late in digitizing mining commodities into the Mineral and Coal Information System (SIMBARA).

"Honestly, we may be a bit late in digitizing almost all of them with Simbara. We encourage all our ministries to digitize and we link-in on this side of Simbara," Luhut said in his Instagram quoted Friday, April 5.

According to Luhut, Simbara has proven successful in recording coal commodities that have been included in the system first. With this system, the government can clearly know the origin and amount of coal traded so that it can attract royalties and taxes in the right amount.

"Because he can't export without doing it all. So it's all done automatically. Now I've been chasing ESDM so that the system at ESDM is complete," explained Luhut.

For this reason, Luhut ensured that the government would immediately include Timah in Simbara in order to track the origin of commodities and tax payments which of course had an impact on state revenues.

"Because like coal, the concentration is almost 40 percent, increasing state revenue. Because you can't play games anymore. And automatically this system can also block it," concluded Luhut.