The amount of electricity subsidy included a proposed 3 percent increase in base electricity tariff every quarter starting May 2012, Director General of Electricity at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Jarman said at a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR)`s Commission VII here on Monday.
"The extra electricity subsidy reaching Rp49.1 trillion is mainly because of the delayed operation of thermal power plants and a floating LNG terminal," he said.
Overall, the amount of electricity subsidy under the draft revision of the 2012 state budget reached Rp93.05 trillion consisting of Rp89.55 trillion from subsidy in the current year, Rp4.5 trillion from unpaid subsidy in 2010 based upon the audit by the State Audit Board, and Rp3.5 trillion from unpaid subsidy in 2011 minus the amount of carry over subsidy in 2012 reaching Rp4.5 trillion, Jarman said.
The delayed operation of thermal power plants had reduced state electricity company PT PLN`s coal consumption to 39.37 million tons from the previous 48.06 million tons, causing the electricity subsidy to increase by Rp26.72 trillion, he added.
He noted that the delayed operation of the floating LNG terminal had lowered gas supplies to power plants to 351.5 trillion British thermal unit (TBTU) from 372.5 TBTU as originally planned. As a result, the amount of subsidy was increased by Rp8.28 trillion.
The electricity subsidy also increased by Rp6.98 trillion due to a shortfall in electrical power sales to 170.3 trillion watts hour (TWh) from the previous 173.77 TWh.
He said the Indonesia Crude Price (CPI), which increased to US$105 from US$90 a barrel, raised the amount of electricity subsidy by Rp4.7 trillion.
Meanwhile, rents on generator sets which rose to 11.41 TWh from 7.25 TWh raised the amount of subsidy by Rp3.51 trillion, and the increase in power purchase from private developers to 43.03 TWh from 40.71 TWh raised the amount of subsidy by Rp1.4 trillion.
After being reduced by interest expense of Rp2.48 trillion, the overall extra electricity subsidy reached Rp49.1 trillion, he said.
(SYS/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Suryanto
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