"If the global price of fuel oil is not too high we will not hurry to make price adjustment," Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo saidJakarta (ANTARA News) - The government still has no plan to raise the price of subsidized fuel to reduce energy subsidy burden in 2013, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said.
"If the global price of fuel oil is not too high we will not hurry to make price adjustment," he said here on Thursday.
He believes budget allocations to fuel subsidy in the 2013 state budget will be adequate and therefore, the government sees no urgency to raise the price of subsidized fuel.
The government is optimistic the price of subsidized fuel will not increase after the House of Representatives (DPR) has approved a proposal for electricity tariff hike to reduce subsidy burden.
"As we all see there have been balanced deliberations on the 2013 state budget now. Even when we want to adjust electricity tariff we receive support. That is a positive signal," he said.
Based on the previous experience, planned fuel price hike had sparked negative reaction from the public which contributed to inflation rate, he said.
"Even though the price of fuel oil was not raised the inflation rate had gone up. What happened was that many people suffered due to price hike," he said.
Under the draft 2013 state budget, budget allocations for energy subsidy reach Rp274.7 trillion consisting of fuel subsidy worth Rp193.8 trillion and electricity subsidy worth Rp80.9 trillion.
In the past years, the energy subsidy rose by an average of 11.6 percent per year.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
