The Indonesian government is going ahead with its plan to establish an oil and gas holding company, marked by the reorganisation of state-owned energy company Pertamina, a move that resulted in the removal of the gas directorate, an official has said.

State-owned Enterprises Ministry spokesman Fajar Harry Sampurno said in Jakarta that the gas sub-holding would one of the four sub-holdings established under the oil and gas holding company.

“Therefore, we eliminated the gas directorate,” said Fajar, adding that the gas sub-holding company would involve state-owned gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) and PT Pertamina Gas (Pertagas), a subsidiary of Pertamina, as reported by tribunnews.com.

The three other sub-holdings are a marketing sub-holding, an upstream sub-holding and a downstream sub-holding.

The Pertamina reorganisation was held after an extraordinary shareholders meeting in Jakarta. Pertamina is set to lead the oil and gas holding company with PGN as its subsidiary.

Meanwhile, Fajar said, the gas sub-holding company would be led by a figure from PGN.

Pertamina investment planning and risk management director Gigih Prakoso said people from the Pertamina gas directorate would handle gas-related matters before the establishment of the gas sub-holding. – The Jakarta Post

Indonesians help swell Singapore visitor numbers

Singapore saw tourist arrivals grow by a modest 6.2 per cent to 17.4 million visitors in 2017, with Indonesia ranking second after China as the largest contributor of tourists, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said.

The number of visitors from Indonesia rose to 2.95 million, up 2 per cent from 2016.

“Jakarta continues to be the largest source of visitors, although most other cities like Surabaya experienced greater growth rates,” STB chief executive Raymond Lim told a press briefing in Jakarta.

China topped the list with 3 million tourists and India came third with 1.3 million. Other countries with notable increases include Vietnam, the Philippines, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Visitors, however, spent proportionally less, with total spending recorded at S$26.8 billion (US$20.31 billion) last year, 3.9 per cent higher than in 2016, according to the board. – The Straits Times

Cambodia govt lays out plan for non-tax revenue

Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance held a workshop recently to finalise a draft on a sub-decree managing non-tax revenue sources, part of the government’s attempt to improve its revenue collection.

About 300 officials from relevant ministries attended the workshop, which was headed up by Net Mony, director-general of the General Department of State Assets and Non-Fiscal Revenue.

Mony said a final draft of the sub-decree would be submitted to the cabinet for approval by the end of March. Non-tax revenue accounted for about 15 per cent of total state revenue last year, according to Mony, but he said he expected that percentage to rise after the passage of the new rules.

Currently, non-tax revenue is collected individually by each ministry, and there are more than 5,000 different sources of non-tax income. The sub-decree is intended to simplify the collection process and bring all the sources under a single set of rules, Mony said. – The Phnom Penh Post

New private home sales jump 37% in Singapore

Singapore developers sold 522 private homes in January, up 37 per cent from the 382 units sold a year ago and 21 per cent more than the 431 units moved in December.

The above figures, released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday, based on its surveys of licensed housing developers, exclude executive condos or ECs, which are a public-private housing hybrid.

Inclusive of ECs, developers moved 622 homes last month, about 10 per cent more than the 566 units sold in January 2017 and 17 per cent higher than the 531 homes sold in December. – The Straits Times