Govt mulls to cut LPG prices

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said recently that the government is mulling to lower the prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in an effort to support the plan to divert subsidy from kerosene to LPG, the Investor Daily Indonesia reported in its Monday edition.

For this, the government has already set up a technical team consisting of members from Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Upstream Oil and Gas Regulating Body (BP Migas) and the state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.

?It (lowering of LPG prices) is one of the results, we will see. We will wait from the results of the team,? Purnomo said.

However, Purnomo has also said that diverting subsidy from kerosene to LPG is not an easy task, given the fact that people have already accustomed to using of kerosene. Moreover many villagers use kerosene also for lighting purposes as they don?t have access to electricity. (*)