REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DETROIT - Mining company PT Freeport Indonesia failed to inform the government about its smelter development plans, therefore no discussions about export tax had taken place, Finance Minister Chatib Basri  said.

"PT Freeport has not informed me on its plan to build a smelter," the minister on Tuesday, after he had launched a "Corporate Roadmap & Corporate Governance Manual", issued by the Financial Service Authority in Jakarta.

PT Freeport has previously indicated that it would like to have a higher rate of export tax revoked on the basis that it plans to build a smelter. The recent imposition of an export tax on mineral products that will increase progressively from 25 to 60 per cent, from 2014 to 2016, is aimed at forcing mineral- and coal-mining companies to build smelters in the country, he said.

"We could not talk about whether the export tax would be increased or decreased because the essence is whether a smelter is available or not," the minister said. "Mere words mean nothing; we need proof. Companies must invest," he added.

Basri explained that the export tax would only be revoked for companies that had built smelters. The finance ministry denied that PT Freeport Indonesia had lobbied the government to ask for a dispensation with regard to the new regulation on export tax on mineral products.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa has also stated that the government would never give an export tax incentive to PT Freeport unless a smelter is built.

On Jan. 29 Richard C Adkerson as Vice Chairman of Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold, said that his company would need to invest more than 2 billion USD to build a smelter in Indonesia. Many things still had to be discussed, Adkerson said, and PT Freeport would work according to the regulations of the country. 

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