Member Of Commission VII DPR Urges BPK To Audit The Nickel Downstream Program

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

Member of Commission VII DPR RI, Mulyanto urged the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) to audit the veracity of state revenue data from the nickel downstream program. Mulyanto considered the increase in revenue unreasonable.

"In order to be fair, the BPK must be able to determine the actual value of state revenue from this nickel downstream program. Because the figures submitted by the Government are too bombastic and unreasonable," said Mulyanto, quoted on Wednesday, August 16.

Mulyanto assessed that the Government's repeated claims by President Jokowi that there would be a significant increase related to nickel exports from IDR 17 trillion to IDR 510 trillion in 2022 were very odd, as well as doubts.

Mulyanto suspects that this figure is not the amount of state revenue but the total value of nickel exports by foreign smelters in Indonesia.

"Maybe the figure is not state revenue, but just a nickel export figure carried out by the foreign smelter industry, whose profits are mainly enjoyed by these smelter investors. And at all, it is not state revenue. This is a very different interpretation," said Mulyanto.

This was later criticized by senior economist Faisal Basri.

Therefore, Mulyanto urged the Government to be transparent in declaring the amount of state revenue from downstream nickel, in order to prevent misinterpretation in the community.

He said the government needed to explain clearly the source of the state revenue.

Moreover, said Mulyanto, the smelter industry has so far received a tax holiday ph of the agency, does not pay PNBP (non-tax state revenue), and is free from export taxes. In fact, the export tax for semi-finished nickel downstream products (NPI) is only planned to take effect in 2022, but it has been delayed to this day.