Govt offers free coal stoves to promote the use of coal briquette

The government will soon distribute about 10 million coal stoves to households and small-scale industries for free as part of the government's program to promote the use of coal briquette in the country, Investor Daily reported on Friday.

Chief Economic Minister Aburizal Bakrie said in Jakarta on Thursday that the government hoped that with such program, both households and small-scale industries which at present use kerosene would gradually turn to coal briquette for their cooking activities.

"The government will appoint State Minister for Empowerment of Women Meutia Hatta to be in charge in promoting the use of coal briquette," he said, adding that the government would also begin selling coal briquette with high quality as part of the program.

The government is promoting the use of coal briquette in order to reduce the demand for the highly subsidized kerosene in the country. The market often suffers a shortage of kerosene supply as a larger part of the kerosene allocated for households are smuggled for industrial uses. The kerosene for households is sold at Rp 2000 per litter, while industries has to buy it for about Rp 5,000 per litter. ( *)