Heaptalk, Jakarta — The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia conveyed to push mining entities to build smelters in Indonesia to increase the added value of Indonesian products.
Minister Bahlil stated, “Since 2021, the President has instructed us to carry out downstream. PT Amman is one of the companies that bear the consequences of this policy. Downstreaming is obligated, if they do not implement it, we will revoke the permission to import raw material.”
The Chairman of Golkar party, further, explained that numerous businesses in Indonesia have mining permission but prefer to sell raw material compare to build smelter in the archipelago.
“They make so many excuses, such as COVID, capital expenditure (capex), and more. We support them, we extend tax holidays to 20 years, master lease, and more. We simplify the permission process and support them well,” stated Bahlil.
For this reason, the Minister affirmed to act more decisively to monitor the industry players who hold the permission and push them to invest more in Indonesia.
“I hope, later, I will sanction any national company who holds mining permission but avoids building a smelter. Mr. President, please allow me to monitor them. The companies have to be forced,” voiced Bahlil in front of the President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo who also attended the agenda.
Meanwhile, the ESDM Minister greatly appreciated PT Amman International for its real action to build a smelter in West Nusa Tenggara. The smelter is claimed to be Indonesia’s second largest mining manufacture who produce copper and gold with the total investment of USD 1.4 billion.
“In case of PT Freeport, around 49% of the stakes is hold by foreign investors while the remining is taken over by SEOs. Meanwhile, PT Amman’s stake is 100% possessed by local investors, nor foreign investor or SEOs”, concluded Bahlil.
