Tempo Interactive, Friday, 12 March, 2010 | 21:42 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government is to forbid the use of subsidized fuel for private vehicles.
"We are serious about this," said the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Darwin Zahedy Saleh in Jakarta, on Friday (12/3).
He said that this measure was being taken because the government had had a hard time controlling the global crude oil price which impacted on fuel subsidies.
Besides that, according to him, the subsidies should be aimed at poor people.
Darwin hoped that it could be applied this year.
“We are starting to design a trial (in Bintan and Bangka Belitung), but we do not know its realization yet,” he said.
Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani previously said that fuel subsidies this year would increase from Rp89.3 trillion to Rp98.7 trillion.
This subsidy increase was because of changes in macro assumptions and fuel price benchmarks in the budget.
The government proposes an oil price assumption from between US$65 to US$77 per barrel.
Darwin confirmed that the government would not increase subsidized fuel prices this year, even though the global fuel price right now is in the range of US$ 80 per barrel.
“We will try not to increase them unless absolutely necessary,” said Darwin.
He explained that the Indonesia Crude Price (ICP) tolerated by the 2010 State Budget, if approved by the House of Representatives, was 10 percent of US$ 77 per barrel.
"If the ICP is still US$85, then the state budget is safe," he said.
The Director General of Oil and Natural Gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Evita Herawati Legowo said that the ICP price for all this year was around US$80 per barrel.
"The premium economic price is US$1 per liter (Rp9,300 against the US$)," she said.
SORTA TOBING
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