Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State electricity corporation PT PLN and the Indonesian textile association (API) have reached agreement to cancel the 18 percent capping of power price hike.

PLN business and risk management director Murtaqi Syamsuddin said here on Sunday that the agreement on the matter had been reached between PT PLN and API, and that API would pay by difference between the ceiling and non-ceiling payments this year.

Syamsuddin said the agreement was the follow up of the direction laid out in a coordinating meeting led by Coordinating Minister of the Economy Hatta Rajasa on February 9, 2011.

In the meeting, which was attended by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Saleh and Finance Minister Agus Martowardoyo, PT PLN had been asked to settle the problem by holding a dialogue with the industries facing cash flow after the cancellation of the power price capping in January 2011.

The government was set to agree to the cancellation of the capping only after the endorsement by the House of Representatives and by considering the 2011 state revenue and budget. Some industries have strongly refused to the lifting of the capping, citing bleak business.

API whose members include most electricity-consuming industries is a sector which has been on better business environments due to the rising exports to China last year.

PT PLN will also approach other industries to also settle the matter, said Syamsuddin. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011