Head Of Banggar Highlights Impact Of Coal Export Ban: We Can't Enjoy The Blessing Of 3 Billion US Dollars In Foreign Exchange Per Month

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JAKARTA - Chairman of the DPR's Budget Agency (Banggar) Said Abdullah highlighted the impact that could arise from the policy of banning coal exports during January 2022, both for the government and business actors.

"As a result of this export ban policy, we cannot enjoy the blessings of foreign exchange. Even though the foreign exchange opportunity we get from coal exports is 3 billion US dollars per month," Said said in his statement, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, January 4.

This, continued Said, has not yet calculated the tax and non-tax revenues obtained by the government. Even though in terms of fiscal state revenues, foreign exchange earnings from exports are needed in 2022 to fix the fiscal due to the correction of the large debt financing burden due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, Said assessed that the ban on coal exports would also be a burden for shipping companies.

"According to the calculation of the shipping operators, the company will be incurring additional costs for additional usage time or a fairly large demurrage of US$20,000 - US$40,000 per day per vessel, which will burden exporting companies," said Said.

Said conveyed that Indonesia's reputation and reliability as a world coal supplier would also be questioned. Various commitments to purchase coal from Indonesia will be questioned and coal exporters will definitely be penalized due to the policy of stopping shipments.

"Instead of enjoying the blessings of increasing coal, they are even subject to penalties from overseas buyers," said Said.

The coal consumption of the State Electricity Company (Persero) and a number of private electricity producers is realized to have indeed increased in 2021, because real sector activities have begun to increase in line with the stable number of COVID-19 in the country.

If in 2020 PLN's coal consumption can be below 100 million tons, and in 2021 it will increase to 115.6 million tons, PLN estimates that coal needs in 2022 will reach 119 million tons.

"The government needs to ensure the availability of national coal reserves through a number of large coal producers. This step is important to ensure the continuity of the national electricity supply," said Said.

Said hopes that the ban on the coal export policy will not last long because it is considered unfavorable for the business climate. In fact, President Joko Widodo is willing to do many things so that the business climate thrives.

"We ask that this kind of policy will not be repeated in the future," said Said.