Indonesia has issued a revision on procedures to apply for licenses as registered coal exporters, a move which has caused confusion among exporters.
The trade ministry issued a regulation in April to revise a previous rule issued in July 2014 that requires companies to apply for licenses as registered exporters. The Indonesian government introduces the rule because it seeks to control exports and boost compliance on royalty payments.
Under the revised regulation obtained by Coalmint, companies now submit application for licenses online through the trade ministry’s single submission of data and information portal, with scanned required documents. Previously, companies submitted their application in written.
The revised regulation removes a requirement to provide a letter of recommendation from the directorate general of mineral and coal at the Energy and Mineral Resources ministry. But companies now must show that they are on the list of legal Mining Business License holders issued by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and provide a decree issued by related authorities that issue the mining business license.
The trade ministry will issued a registered exporter status within 5 days providing the applicants submitall the required documents correctly. If companies fail to submit its application correctly, the trade ministry will issue a rejection notice within 3 days from the application date and can’t be processed further.
The new regulation has caused confusion among exporters. There have been reports about tens of vessels in some ports in Kalimantan were unable to sail and were held up because of problems with export documents, such as surveyor’s report and export notice. But it couldn’t be confirmed whether the problem with the export documents have connected to the new rule for obtaining licenses as registered exporters.
Sri Rahardjo, coal director at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and Oke Nurwan, director general of trade protection at the Trade Ministry didn’t respond to questions from Coalmint until the news was written.
A trader based in Jakarta said his company hasn’t been able to submit their application for obtaining the license as a registered exporter because the system is yet coming online. “Luckily, we have finished our shipments before this issue,” the trader said, adding that the company is still checking whether they can ship their coal overseas.
In the past few years, the Indonesian government has been working to reconcile thousands of mining business license issued by the regional and central governments by checking on unpaid taxes and royalties as well as overlapping mining concessions. Miners whose permit has been declared ‘clean-and-clear’ can apply for licenses as registered exporters.
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