subsidized premium gasoline and diesel oil at the end of May amid rising global oil prices.
Director General of Oil and Gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Evita Legowo said on Monday the government kept monitoring global oil prices once every two days.
"However, we have yet to come to the option of raising fuel oils," she said.
Many quarters have asked the government to consider a proposal to raise the prices of subsidized fuel oils after global oil prices were hovering above US$100 a barrel.
Satya W Yudha of the House Commission VII urged the government to raise the prices of subsidized premium gasoline and diesel oil by Rp500 a liter.
The increase in the prices of fuel oils would help the government reduce a budget deficit as a result of soaring global oil prices, Satya W Yudha of the Golkar Party faction in the House of Representatives said.
"Any increase in ICP (Indonesian Crude Price) of US$1 a barrel will raise the budget deficit by Rp500 billion. This will put pressure on the state budget," he said.
Evita said the ICP between May 2010 and April 2011 averaged US$90 a barrel. "But it fell sharply in the past few days," she said.
She said her side had internally been discussing a change in ICP in the revised 2011 state budget.
Under the State budget Law of 2011, the government is allowed to raise the prices of subsidized fuels if the average ICP in the past one year is 10 percent higher than the assumed oil price of US$80 a barrel.
According to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, ICP averaged US$89.52 a barrel in the May 2010-April 2011 period.
ICP reached US$77.02 a barrel in May, US$75.27 in June, US$73.75 in July, US$75.97 in August, US$76.76 in September, and US$82.26 in October, US$85.07 in November and US$91.37 in December last year.
It rose to US$97.09 in January, US$103.31 in February, US$113.07 in March and US$123.36 in April this year.(*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
