Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Fuel price hikes will not seriously affect industries, particularly the food and beverage industries, an industrialist said.

"The increase in fuel prices will not affect industries too much, possibly only about three percent on distribution because industries have used international price standards since November 2011," Secretary General of Food and Beverages Businesses Association Franky Sibarani said here on Friday.

Further, the fuel oil price increase is expected to only affect the transportation sector of the industries, or distribution costs, he said.

Sibarani noted that the increase in the prices of food and drink could not be caused by only one factor, but there must be a number of events that contribute to such increases.

"If increases happen, it would not be because of fuel oil price increases, but due to the increase in packaging prices as a result of the hike in the world crude price or of the increase of sugar prices and other factors," he added.

The government is planning to raise the price of subsidized fuel oil on April 1 and has submitted two options to the House of Representatives (DPR). In the first proposal, the government seeks to raise the price of subsidized premium gasoline from Rp4,500 to Rp6,000 per liter and diesel oil from Rp4,500 to Rp6,000 per liter.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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