The government was as yet not able to confirm the options for limiting subsidized fuel oil consumption given by the supervising team for the program as talks still had yet to be held with the House of Representatives (DPR).
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is not yet able to determine options to be used in reducing consumption of subsidized gasoline as it still has to discuss it with the House of Representatives, Hatta Rajasa said.

The coordinating minister for economic affairs said here on Monday the government was as yet not able to confirm the options for limiting subsidized fuel oil consumption given by the supervising team for the program as talks still had yet to be held with the House of Representatives (DPR).

The government was also still monitoring the global situation that had caused the price of crude to fluctuate he said.

"As assumptions had changed a more comprehensive study had to be done regarding the highest assumption and others. I could only tell as far as that. Even the DPR has not yet been told about it. So how could I tell about it further," he said.

He said the government had received the results of a study done by the team regarding three options for reducing consumption of subsidized fuel oils but no option had been taken yet for implementation as it still had yet to be discussed with DPR on Tuesday.

"Just now we just heard the expose from three team members from the University of Indonesia, Gajah Mada University and the Bandung Institute of Technology. They explained the socio-economic aspects and also readiness. What they said indeed also included what the government had explained before about the need for limiting consumption," he said.

Hatta said the option to be taken after discussions with the DPR must be the one that meets the goal.

"The best option is the one that reduces consumption of subsidized fuel oils by those who are not eligible for it and gives the subsidized fuel oils for those who are rightful," he said.

The head of the team, Anggito Abimanyu, said the team had three options to be submitted to the government and the DPR for immediate realization so that the volume of subsidized oil consumption would not exceed 38.5 million kiloliters.

He said the first option was increasing the price of regular premium gasoline by Rp500 a liter with public transport receiving a cash back to keep the price constant for them.

The second option was requiring private cars to buy non-subsidized Pertamax to reduce consumption of subsidized gasoline.

He said the option was made based upon the price of pertamax maintained based on affordability at Rp8,000 per liter.

"So they are requested to buy pertamax at a certain price. The most feasible one according to a survey on the public`s capacity is around Rp8,000," he said.

The third option was for the government to control consumption allocations for public transport and private vehicles.

"So there will be quotas for public transport as well as motorcycles," he said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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