Coal export duty hike: India to talk with Indonesia

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SME Times News Bureau | 30 Jan, 2012
Expressing concern over the proposed restrictions on export of certain grades of coal by the Indonesian government, India Saturday said it would try to find a solution through bilateral talks.

"We have taken up it with the external affairs and the finance ministries to solve the tax issue with the Indonesian government," union Coal Secretary Alok Perti said at the 4th Asian Mining Congress & International Exhibition here.

"We would try to find a solution through bilateral talks," Perti added.

Indonesia had plans to impose export duty on coal and minerals to discourage export without value addition and encourage base metal and coal downstream industry development. There were also talks to export coal above than 5,600 kilocalories (kcal) from the country.

India's power sector is expected to get impacted by this as currently coal imports from Indonesia are higher.

Perti informed that the prime minister's office (PMO) was working towards a co-ordination among coal, power and environment ministries to increase the target for additional production of coal by the Coal India Ltd (CIL) for the 12th Five Year Plan period.

"The PMO is working towards it. If environment issues are sorted out, we would be able to increase the conservative additional production target of 100 MT for the 12th Five Year Plan period announced by the state-run coal major," he said.

"I believe it can be 160 MT, if environment issues are sorted out," he added.