The ministry's Director General of Electricity, Jisman Hutajulu, explained here on Wednesday that the policy is part of the government's efforts to maintain the competitiveness of business actors, people's purchasing power, and the inflation rate.
"The electricity tariff from January to March 2024 is maintained to keep the competitiveness of business actors, people's purchasing power, and the inflation rate in the new year," he remarked.
In accordance with Ministerial Regulation No. 28 of 2016 juncto Ministerial Regulation No. 8 of 2023, adjustments to electricity tariffs for non-subsidized customers are carried out every three months while referring to the macroeconomic dynamics.
The macroeconomic parameters include exchange rates, Indonesian Crude Price (ICP), inflation, and coal reference prices (HBA).
Hence, the macroeconomic parameters used for determining the electricity tariff for the first quarter of 2024 were the exchange rate of Rp15,446.85 per US dollar, ICP of US$86.49 per barrel, inflation of 0.11 percent, and HBA of US$70 per ton as per coal's domestic market obligation (DMO) policy.
Hutajulu, in his statement, also reported that electricity tariffs for 25 groups of subsidized customers did not change, and the government will continue to distribute electricity subsidies.
"This includes social-assisted customers, poor households, small industries, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)," he remarked.
The government also expressed hope that state electricity firm PT PLN would continue to apply operational efficiency measures and spur electricity sales more aggressively while maintaining its quality of services.
PT PLN Distribution Director Adi Priyanto earlier stated that there was no deficit in electricity supply throughout Indonesia on Christmas Eve.
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Translator: Benardy F, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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