Government Launches Simbara, Observer: Supervision Will Be Easier

Illustration (doc. Kemenkomarves)

JAKARTA - The government launched the Coal Management Information System (Simbara) and Integrated Information System (SIT) for upstream oil and gas activities.

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that this step was the development of an integrated ecosystem for all management and monitoring applications as well as being the source of data for the mineral and coal sector (minerba).

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif said this application contains a series of processes from upstream to downstream consisting of the mining planning process, purification processing, and sales of mineral and coal commodities, as well as its relation to fulfilling the obligation to pay state revenues and clearance to ports.

Responding to the launch of this system, the Executive Director of Energy Watch, Mamit Setiawan said that with SIMBARA, the child controls and ensures the online and integrated supply of domestic coal.

"So it will be easier to control so that the supervision will be easier," he told VOI, Tuesday, March 8.

He said that with this system, the government would more easily find out the vulnerable points for the lack of coal supply for power plants. In addition, all parties can also see which producers are not committed to carrying out a domestic market obligation (DMO) so that they can be prohibited from carrying out export activities and are more easily given sanctions.

"With the issuance of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Decree No. 13/2022, I think it is clear that it regulates sanctions and fines for coal producers who cannot fulfill their 25 percent DMO commitment. This will make producers think again about not complying with the DMO provisions," he said.

Previously, Minister Arifin also said that with the existence of Simbara, the supervision of compliance with DMO obligations by business entities could be carried out more optimally, while preventing illegal trade in minerals and coal by business actors, both as producers and distributors, which could result in leakage of state revenues.