"The first consideration is the peoples purchasing power," he noted, following a meeting with President Joko Widodo at the Presidential Palace here, on Wednesday.
Although the electricity tariffs will not be raised, state electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) will make profit this year, he asserted.
"Therefore, it will not suffer losses. Surely, it will still make profit. Its income will likely fall by Rp4-5 trillion. Hence, it does not matter," he remarked.
PLN earns an average of Rp300 trillion in income per year, he added.
The minister asked PLN to be able to make efficiency in its maintenance costs.
He believed that with the income earned by PLN in 2017, the construction of power plants, with a combined capacity of 35 megawatts, will not be affected.
"The mega projects, with a combined capacity of 35 thousand megawatts, will not be affected. They will not be completed until 2019 probably due to technical matters. Therefore, they will likely be completed by 2023 to 2024," he revealed.
The mega projects consist of 25 thousand-megawatt power plants built by private companies and 10 thousand-megawatt power plants built by PLN, he explained.
If PLN feels unable to build the power plants with a capacity of 10 thousand megawatts, it can propose to transfer the project to the private companies, he concluded.
(S012/INE)
Reported by Bayu Prasetyo
EDITED BY INE/A014.
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
