JAKARTA. The Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, (ESDM) plans to provide incentives for coal gasification projects, to increase coal downstreaming.
Wafid Agung, Director of the Minerba Program of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said this incentive is still being discussed by a number of policymakers and business players. One possibility is that this incentive will take the form of royalty cuts for companies that do coal gasification.
"There are several proposed incentives so that the gasification project that is being run can be feasible," Agung said as reported by Kontan on Tuesday (14/1) yesterday.
At present, coal gasification is a priority program of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. Discussions on these incentives are expected to be completed before June 2020 and implemented immediately.
Meanwhile Hendra Sinadia, Executive Director of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI), said the coal gasification program requires quite large investment, which is above US$ 13 billion. Therefore, Sinadia hopes that the government can provide appropriate incentives. (KR/AR)