Govt able to meet additional subsidy to avoid power tariff increase: Bappenas
Tuesday, March 14 2006 - 02:19 AM WIB
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Paskah said that providing an additional subsidy of between Rp 10 trillion and Rp 12 trillion would not pose a problem because it would not cause the state budget deficit to exceed the target.
"There is still a room to provide the additional subsidy as long as the House of Representatives (DPR) agrees to do so," he was quoted as saying while denying that the government had reached an agreement on the increase in the electricity tariffs.
He said that the statement of Chief Economic Minister Boediono that the government would increase the tariff was a personal opinion. "The government has not yet made any decision," he said.
The result of the audit of the state audit agency (BPK) indicated that the operating costs published by PLN as the basis for the calculation of the proposed power tariff increase was too high. Based on the finding of BPK, the government only needed to provide additional subsidy of between Rp 10 trillion and 12 trillion to maintain the current rates, far lower than the Rp 17 trillion required by PLN.
PLN said that the government should give additional subsidy of about Rp 17 trillion on the top of the Rp 17.7 trillion already allocated in the state budget, if the electricity tariffs were not increased.
Meanwhile State Minister for Information and Communication Sofyan Djalil said that the government would decide this week whether or not the electricity tariffs would be increased.
"The government is still calculating the result of the audit of BPK. We hope the final decision could be made this week," he added. (*)