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Indonesia’s Bayan Resources

takes legal action against

revocation of coal permits

INDONESIA INDONESIAN private coal company Bayan them] and the BKPM has also replied to their
Resources has challenged the government’s deci- letters officially,” Ridwan said during a parlia-
sion to revoke its mining permits in the island mentary hearing on March 31.
of Borneo. The reason the concessions were reduced
Five Bayan subsidiaries have filed lawsuits in was because of a long-running legal tussle with
Jakarta against the head of the national invest- another mining company, PT Senyiur Sukses
ment agency, Bahlil Lahadalia, for revoking Pratama (SSP), whose own concession over-
their mining permits, Bayan said in a filing to lapped with those of the Bayan subsidiaries.
the Jakarta Stock Exchange, local news agency Litigation between the two started out in
Mongabay reported. Bayan’s favour in May 2016, when SSP’s con-
The legal challenge is the latest in an ongoing cession was slashed by the East Kalimantan
battle over mining concessions in Indonesian provincial investment agency. SSP sued in
Borneo between Bayan and another mining administrative court and won a decision to roll
company, PT Senyiur Sukses Pratama (SSP). back the reduction.
“Right now, there is no impact on the com- Bayan, through OM, then took the case to a
pany’s finances, but Bayan’s five subsidiaries court in Jakarta, and after a series of four rulings
are unable/obstructed from continuing their up the list of courts, each one going in favour of
operations,” the company wrote in the filing in one side and then the other, SSP finally prevailed.
Indonesian. In a Supreme Court review in February 2019, it
In January and February, Indonesia’s national had its original concession restored, with the
investment agency (BKPM) revoked the per- areas of overlap ruled to be inside SSP’s conces-
mits held by the five Bayan subsidiaries. The sion and no longer in dispute.
move was part of a mass permit revocation Because of this, the BKPM decided to whit-
announced by President Joko Widodo in Janu- tle down the Bayan subsidiaries’ concessions
ary on the grounds that the affected companies to exclude the areas that now fell inside SPP’s
had failed to exploit their licensed concessions concession.
to the utmost. Grita Anindarini, a programme director at
The mass permit revocation prompted up the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law
to 50 mining companies to lodge complaints (ICEL), said the revocation could backfire on the
against the government. government. The court hearing the Bayan sub-
The whole issue comes as the government is sidiaries’ lawsuit could find the BKPM guilty of
focusing on diverting coal output to domestic maladministration, she said, if indeed the invest-
consumption. In January, the government tem- ment agency had acted without first exhausting
porarily banned coal exports in a bid to stabilise its options of administrative sanctions such
the country’s domestic coal supplies. as written warnings and a stay order on their
On the other hand, Indonesia could increase activities.
coal exports to China as Beijing aims to raise Under a 2021 government regulation on
stockpiles and the war in Ukraine threatens mining activities, a concession can only be auto-
imports from Russia. matically revoked if the concession holder has
Ridwan Djamaluddin, director-general of committed a crime; if a government evaluation
minerals and coal at the mining ministry, said has determined there’s been environmental deg-
the BKPM had revoked 387 mining permits, radation; or if the concession holder is declared
including 137 for coal miners, as of March 5. bankrupt.
He said the BKPM had started to process the “If any of these criteria aren’t met, then there’s
complaints. maladministration” in the revocation of the
“And we have accepted parties that filed these Bayan subsidiaries’ mining permits, Grita told
complaints well, we’ve communicated [with Mongabay.™

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