Government to impose sanction on PLN in line with tariff increase

The government will impose sanction against the state electricity company PLN as part of a plan to increase the electricity tariff by an average of six percent per three months beginning next year, Suara Karya reported on Tuesday.

The sanction which will be in the form of 10 percent reduction in the electricity billing is stated in the draft of the Presidential decree that will be issued to effectively begin the tariff increase.

According to the draft which was prepared by the Directorate General of Electricity and Energy Use, the 10 percent reduction of the electricity billing will be imposed if the services provided by PLN could not meet the minimum requirement such as if the duration of power interruption or blackout, and the number of power interruption exceed the tolerable level. The sanction is also imposed if the electricity billing exceeds more than 10 percent of the amount stated in the electricity meter.

"So, if the three indicators of services (length of power interruption, number of power interruptions and more than 10 percent over billed) could not be met, the affected customers should receive 10 percent cut in their billing," Director General of Electricity and Energy Use, Luluk Sumiarso said in a public hearing on the planned power tariff increase.

He said that the sanction and the criteria of the quality of the power supply services that should be met by PLN would be further regulated under Energy and Mineral Resources Minister?s decree to give PLN and customers better understanding about the punishment system stated in the Presidential decree.

Husna Zakir, an executive of the YLKI consumers foundation, supported the sanction plan, saying that the 10 percent reduction in the electricity billing would be meaningless compared to the negative impact of the power disturbance on consumers.

PLN President Eddie Widiono agreed that PLN should begin to pay a serious attention on the improvement of the services to its customers but he said that the punishment system and the criteria of the power interruption needed further clarification.

According to him, there should be a clear distinction between the power interruption caused by power cuts due to lack of power supply and those resulted from other factors such as the cut in the gas supply from third party.

He said that the criteria of the minimum service requirement should not be imposed nationally because the power supply capacity varied from one to another province. In some areas, a power supply rotation could not be avoided due to the lack of the power supply capacity, Eddie said.

"It is not fair if all the problems are blamed on us," he said, adding that if the criteria were no changed, it would certainly result in a heavy burden on PLN. (*)