Member Of Commission VII Asks Government To Take Firm Action Against Illegal Nickel Ore Exporters

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VII DPR RI, Mulyanto asked the Government to take firm action against 5 million tons of illegal nickel ore exporters to China.

The reason is, this illegal export has occurred since 2020 even though the government has closed the export tap.

"The government must take firm action against all parties involved in exporting illegal nickel worth Rp. 14.5 trillion which has been going on since 2020. If necessary, evaluate all export control teams," Mulyanto said in a statement to the media, Tuesday, June 27.

Mulyanto said, according to the rules, illegal exports should be very unlikely because many parties carry out surveillance such as Bakamla, Customs and Excise, Pol Air and the Harbormaster and Port Authority (KSOP) Office.

However, in practice these rules can still be banned so that illegal exports of nickel are still happening.

"This needs to be evaluated seriously. The KPK can explore the performance of these export supervisors. Maybe there is a joke or omission between illegal officers and exporters. In addition, the government should immediately track from which port and what companies are carrying out these illegal exports and immediately criminalize them," said Mulyanto.

Mulyanto also asked that this case be resolved transparently. The government must not allow the investigation of this case to drag on.

"The state has suffered a lot from the export of illegal nickel. On the one hand, the downstream nickel half-hearted, which exports semi-finished nickel in the form of nickel pig iron (NPI) and Feronikel with low nickel content, does not produce adequate state revenues. Because the nickel downstream program is densely in incentives, both free value-added tax, corporate pph and export duties. On the other hand, we are harmed by illegal exports and European Union lawsuits at WTO. It's like the saying, it has fallen into a ladder too," said Mulyanto.

As is known, Jokowi has banned nickel exports since January 1, 2020. This policy is regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Number 11/2019. The price of nickel ore for domestic smelters is set at almost half of the international price.

From Chinese customs data, it was reported that in 2020 it was found that imports of Chinese nickel ore from Indonesia reached 3.4 billion kilograms with a value of 193 million US dollars.

Then in 2021, China again imports 839 million kilograms of nickel ore from Indonesia with a value of 48 million US dollars.

Meanwhile, in 2022 it will be 1 billion kilograms of nickel ore.