Finance Minister: Silent About Lapindo Handling
Friday, 05 January, 2007 | 14:25 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati refused to give statements about the government funds to be disbursed for the handling of Lapindo mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java.

“About that, I don’t wish to comment now,” she briefly told Tempo in Jakarta, yesterday (4/1). The Finance Minister appeared to be cautious in response to the Lapindo matter.

Before, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Lapindo Brantas Inc. must bear the cost of the mudflow until March 2007. After that, compensation will be decided by the President. “This is in line with the President’s decision, and Lapindo stated it can make the payment until March,” he said.

As already reported, Lapindo conveyed it could only provide Rp3.8 trillion . The funds are only for compensation for houses and fields of residents in four villages: Siring, Renokenongo, Kedungbendo and Jatirejo.

A member of the Special Staff of Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Muhammad Ikhsan, said the government should have also borne the risk of Lapindo’s oil drilling. According to him, the risk should be in line with the portion of oil obtained by the government via the profit-sharing contract. “That’s my personal opinion,” he said.

According to him, if the government consented to the Limited Corporation Decree, the government should also bear the risk. He said, this is because according to the decree, the company bears the risk as much as its capital adequacy. “Even if it is combined with co-financing of Energi, Santos Indonesia and Medco, it won’t be sufficient,” he said. Ikhsan said if the risk has exceeded the co-financing, the company can already be regarded as bankrupt. “If it’s bankrupt, the state is the one to bear the brunt of it.”

Agus Supriyanto