The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) said that as much as 80% of the Work Plans and Budgets (RKAB) of mineral and coal mining companies were rejected or returned due to a lack of administrative requirements and non-tax state revenue obligations (PNBP) had not been paid. Special Staff of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources for the Acceleration of Mineral and Coal Management, Irwandy Arif said, many complaints have come regarding the management of minerals and coal (minerba) which is considered not good. However, of the thousands of applications that have been submitted to Minerba, as many as 80% have been rejected or returned.

"The reason for being rejected or returned is because the requirements given to Minerba were incomplete so if they were returned the process would start again from scratch, that's what took a long time. There is even one permit that takes up to 6 months to process,” he explained in Bogor, Saturday (25/2). In fact, if a company submits an RKAB that meets the technical and administrative requirements, the document will be received and completed according to schedule. As a result of this problem, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources ordered the Directorate General of Mineral and Coal to immediately summon the management of the company concerned to explain in detail what administrative deficiencies the RKAB had submitted.

"The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources ordered us if necessary to summon the companies to explain what the deficiencies are, but don't use a consultant so they will come back and forth again. Go straight to the management and complete the administrative, don't just enter 4, just enter 2," he explained. In addition to the incomplete administrative requirements, often, these companies have not paid off their PNBP obligations so they cannot get RKAB approval from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. Irwandy emphasized that currently his party has started to clean up mineral and coal governance. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources also organizes counseling for business actors regarding how to complete the RKAB administrative requirements.

Previously, the Director General (Dirjen) of Mineral and Coal, Ridwan Djamaluddin said, the Directorate General of Minerba's system had been attacked by hackers resulting in the approval of the 2023 Work Plan and Budget (RKAB) experiencing problems. Ridwan said the hacker attack occurred in December 2022 for 10 days and made the system not function. Then this attack continued in early January 2023 for a week, then again occurred in the third week of January and even today. "There are technical problems in our system, so some of it is done manually," he explained in a hearing with Commission VII DPR RI, Wednesday (1/2).

Ridwan explained that several obstacles or reasons why the RKAB were not approved were often administrative problems. For example, the data on company management is not the same as that in Minerba One Data Indonesia (MODI) and that submitted in the RKAB. Then, the issue of environmental permits, resource data that is not verified by a competent person is currently a requirement, the production plan does not comply with the expiration date, and the completeness of supporting documents. "In principle, we apply the spirit to help companies that are constrained, we guide them to solve them," said Ridwan. In this way both parties can benefit. Companies can carry out their activities and the state gets a portion.

Source: https://industri.kontan.co.id/news/80-rkab-perusahaan-minerba-ditolak-dan-dikembalikan-ini-penyebab-utamanya