JAKARTA: The Indonesian government has asked state-owned energy company Pertamina to limit its sales of subsidized fuels so as not to increase pressure on energy subsidies, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Thursday.
Indonesia has increased its energy subsidies this year to 502 trillion rupees ($34 billion), in a bid to keep some fuel prices and electricity tariffs unchanged amid rising global fuel prices. energy and rupee depreciation.
That has helped keep inflation in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy relatively low, at 4.94% last month. The central bank also said it gave it room to delay rate hikes.
The subsidy budget assumes that full-year subsidized diesel sales will reach 15.1 kiloliters and subsidized gasoline sales 23.1 kiloliters, but the current sales volume has already reached those levels, said Isa Rachmatarwata , director general of the budget at the Ministry of Finance.
“That’s why I asked Pertamina to control (the volume of sales) so that the state budget does not come under additional pressure,” Sri Mulyani told a press conference.
Pertamina plans to limit subsidized fuel sales by requiring consumers to digitally register their vehicles so the company can determine whether subsidies have reached intended recipients, the general secretary of its business unit Pertamina Patra Niaga told Reuters. , Irto Ginting.
However, Pertamina is still awaiting government rules on the sale and distribution of fuel, Ginting added.
Economists have criticized the government’s decision to increase grants this year, saying it would take money away from projects with bigger economic impacts.
Said Abdullah, head of parliament’s budget committee, said the government and parliament were set to discuss the effectiveness of subsidies.
“If we continue to rely on the state budget without improving the subsidy mechanism, many priority agendas for national development will not be achieved,” he said.
($1 = 14,765.0000 rupees)