"It is difficult to find gas stations selling non-subsidized oil in regions."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said the government`s policy to limit the use of subsidized oil will cause logistic costs to soar.
"The policy to limit the use of subsidized oil by trucks with four wheels or more will slow down the distribution of goods by land and cause logistic costs to increase by up to 20 percent," Kadin deputy chief for logistics Carmelita Hartono said here on Friday.
She was responding to the energy and mineral resources minister`s regulation number 1/2013 requiring cargo cars with four wheels or more loaded with plantation, forestry and mining commodities to use non-subsidized diesel oil.
The regulation which began to take effect on March 1, 2013 has the potential to raise logistic costs because it is hard to find non-subsidized oil in regions, she said.
"It is difficult to find gas stations selling non-subsidized oil in regions. Consequently, many truck operators buy diesel oil from retailers at non-subsidized price. This is an extra cost," she said.
Therefore, she asked the government to put the policy on hold.
According to him, if the government is to limit the use of subsidized oil by all types of trucks, it must compensate them for the extra cost by, among other things, abolishing motor vehicle taxes and vehicle transfer ownership fees.
In practice, the policy to limit the use of subsidized diesel oil applies to all types of trucks, chief of the Indonesian Logistics Association (ALI) Zaldi Masita said.
"Pursuant to the ministerial regulation, the policy to limit the use of subsidized oil only applies to trucks of four wheels or more carrying plantation, forestry and mining commodities," he said.
He predicted the policy may raise transportation cost by 30 percent.
(Reporting by Muhammad Razi Rahman, translating by Suharto)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
