"The funds allocated for fuel subsidy are not helping the intended beneficiaries. With the subsidy the government wants to help the poor but in reality many wealthy people also enjoy the facility," Satya said here on Saturday at a discussion held by ANTARA News Agency titled "The Impacts of Sustainable Development on Energy Prices in Indonesia."
He said the government must make new rules on the granting of the fuel subsidy so that only deserving people are helped. If not, he said, the government would continue to suffer financial loss because the money to pay subsidy came from the State Budget.
Meanwhile, executive director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) Fabby Tumiwa said according to a survey conducted by the National Socioeconomic Survey in 2008, around 25 percent of people with high income enjoy 77 percent of the total of government`s subsidy while the poor only get around 15 percent.
"The government has so far been subsidizing the commodity (fuel) rather than the people. That is why the fuel subsidy is mostly benefiting the wrong people," he said.
Fabby suggested that the government reform the fuel subsidy system in a way that emphasized the effectiveness of the program.
Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had said, the government had decided once again to implement an energy efficiency policy because of the increased world crude price and a swelling fuel subsidy burden.
"It seems we have to conduct an energy efficiency campaign again, especially in the use of electricity and fuel oil. The price of crude oil remains high and there are no signs it will drop again soon so that we will have to allocate more state budget funds for fuel oil subsidy," the President said.
The head of state said one way to safeguard the budget was reducing fuel and electricity subsidy pressure on the budget by cutting the use of subsidized electricity and fuel oil.
He said the government had implemented a policy of electricity efficiency in government officers before and the result was good.
"Especially for electricity we have done it before and the result was good," he said.
Therefore, the President at the meeting asked for reports from his ministers regarding their plan to implement subsidized fuel use and electricity efficiency.
(A051/F001)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
