BANJARMASIN, S Kalimantan: The central government has issued a policy to increase the quota of coal production to 100 million tons for exports to various countries in an effort to control the deficit through current transactions and maintain Indonesia’s economic fundamentals, Antaranews Kalsel reported.
Head of Bank Indonesia Office of South Kalimantan Herawanto in Banjarmasin Wednesday said the addition of the quota is an attempt by the government to use the momentum to increase foreign exchange.
“We hope that the addition of the coal production quota will also be able to increase South Kalimantan’s economic growth,” he said.
According to Herawanto, the policy of increasing coal production does not conflict with the previous policy, in which the government tightened raw mining exports.
“Of course the decision to increase the export quota cannot be implemented without calculation and stipulated conditions,” he said.
In addition to increasing the coal export quota, the government also set several steps to control the deficit through current transactions and maintain Indonesia’s economic fundamentals.
These steps include reviewing government infrastructure projects, especially national strategy projects.
Then, the implementation of the use of biodiesel (B-20) to reduce the import of diesel fuel and review the income tax policy on 1,147 imported consumer goods tariff posts to encourage the use of domestic products.
Herawanto was speaking at a regular meeting between Bank Indonesia and South Kalimantan journalists to discuss local economic growth. BI presented the resource person the Director of Regional Financial Services Institution Supervision (LJK) of the Regional IX OJK Kalimantan Mohammad Nurdin.