Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Bahlil Lahadalia, said that discussion of the Draft Law on New Energy and Renewable Energy (RUU EBET) was not yet a priority.

Deliberation of the EBET Bill has continued from the previous, 2019-2024 membership period of the House of Representatives (DPR) to the current 2024-2029 membership. Currently, the EBET Bill is one of the bills included in the list of Priority National Legislation Programs (Prolegnas) of Commission XII of the House, which oversees Energy and Mineral Resources, Environment and Investment Affairs.

Bahlil raised the issue when journalists asked about the progress of the EBET Bill deliberation after the House of Representatives agreed to ratify the Mining (Minerba Bill).

He said that there is a possibility of prioritizing the deliberation of the Oil and Gas Bill (RUU Migas) in order to facilitate increase in oil and gas lifting. However, Bahlil does not provide the detail when the law will be revised as yet.

On a separate occasion, Bambang Patijaya, Chairman of the House’s Commission XII, said that the discussion of the EBET Bill will be continued for some time to come.

However, he could not yet say when exactly the discussion would continue, because it would still be discussed at the House leadership level.

The EBET Bill has been the focus of discussion by DPR for the past four years. Various issues, such as the domestic component level (TKDN) requirement and the power wheeling scheme are still topics in the draft regulation that require more intensive discussion.

Power wheeling is a mechanism where independent power producers (IPPs) can sell electricity directly to the public.

However, the EBET Bill again failed to be passed by the House of the 2019-2024 membership period, which resulted in the norm on power wheeling not being agreed upon.