President also asked Pertamina to cut the price of avtur, the aviation gas, as the price of our avtur is not competitive.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo asked state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina to cut its U.S. dollar spending in a bid to prop up sagging national currency rupiah.
Pertamina spends from US$60 million to US$80 million a day to finance imports of oil fuels.
The company imports around 700,000 barrels of oil fuels per day to make up the shortfall in supply from domestic oil refineries.
"Pertamina was a told to take step to reduce our big dollar requirement," Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung told reporters here on Tuesday.
Pertaminas President Director Dwi Sucipto said Pertamina would have to use the consignment method to cut the need for dollar.
"We will pay when it is about to be used," Dwi Sucipto said, adding," that it why we need to build more oil refineries."
Pramono Anung said the president also asked Pertamina to cut the price of avtur, the aviation gas, as the price of our avtur is not competitive.
Pramono said it is necessary to cut the price of avtur to increase the number of aircraft making a transit in the countrys airports.
"The aircraft that always make transit in Singapore on their way to Indonesia could bypass Singapore and fly directly to the country," he said.
Competitive price of avtur would benefit not only the countrys aviation industry but also the tourism sector, he said.
Dwi Sucipto said Pertamina would seek to improve efficiency in avtur production to reduce production cost.
He also said that Pertamina could provide tax facility to enable Pertamina to cut the price of its avtur.
"Hopefully in October we could produce a better formula," he said.
He acknowledged the price of avtur is more expensive than aviation gas of Singapore, therefore, a cut of 10 percent to 15 percent is needed to be competitive.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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