Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has decided to implement five measures to control use of subsidized fuels, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said.

"Just now we discussed control and restriction of subsidized fuel use with regard to maintaining the quota of subsidized fuel at 40 million kilo liters a year. We have decided five ways," he said after a cabinet meeting on energy led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here on Thursday.

The first way is restricting the use of subsidized fuels for cars belonging to government offices and its implementation will be carried out in stages starting in Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, Depok and Bekasi and later Java and Bali.

The cars under this category to be put in a ministerial regulation include those belonging to state-owned and regional government-owned companies.

"We will also prepare ways to control its implementation while for official cars stickers will be used for it," he said.

The second way is restricting its use on cars used in mining and plantation. These cars are not allowed to use subsidized diesel fuel because state-owned oil/gas company Pertamina has already provided fuel exclusively for mining and plantation, he said adding regional governments are expected to help supervise its implementation.

"The third way is oil-to-gas conversion. We have already started it. We will add more natural gas filling stations, supply and also prepare converter kits," he said.

The fourth way is banning state-owned electricity company PLN to build new oil powered electricity plants. PLN must set up plants powered by coal, natural gas, geothermal or solar energy.

The fifth way is, the minister said, saving the use of electricity and water in government buildings.

The minister said the government had decided to postpone indefinitely the plan to implement restriction of subsidized gasoline use on private cars based on engine capacity or production year.

"The plan to restrict based on engine capacity and production year has been tested in the field but it was found to be difficult to implement," he said. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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