"The finance minister as the state treasurer who is responsible for the management of the state`s finances must be involved. He must ensure that development of the country`s natural resources will not disadvantage the state in the long run," Kemal Aziz Stamboel of the House Commission XI on financial affairs said here on Tuesday.
He said in mineral resource exploitation, there were assets which were tapped and those would have an impact on the environment.
"The question is whether the tapped assets would benefit the state. In this case the finance minister as the state treasurer must take part in the renegotiations to give his views," he said.
The government is now planning to renegotiate a total of 118 work contracts on coal mining and 42 others on mineral industries.
Apart from that there are also about 8,000 mining business licenses (IUP) or mining concessions (KP) that need to be reviewed.
According to the finance minister, his ministry so far had never been involved in the process of granting mining licenses to businesses, or in the signing of contracts.
"I think the minister must be involved because there are aspects of state revenues in the contracts such as taxes, import duties and royalties," Kemal said.
(Uu.A014/HAJM/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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