Govt to draft new electricity law ?soon?: Purnomo
Thursday, December 16 2004 - 07:38 AM WIB
Purnomo further said that government regulation on electricity regulatory body, which was designed to become watchdog once electricity sector was liberalized, was also annulled along with other regulations issued based on Law No.20/2002.
He, however, warned that assembling the new law to replace Law No20/2002 would not be an easy task and would take long time to complete. ?A lot of efforts and funding would be needed to pass the new law,? he said.
Law no.20/2002, which was passed in 2002 amid protests from several parties, including several legislators and non-governmental organizations, aims to liberalize the nation?s power industry and scrap the decades-long monopoly held by state owned electricity company PT PLN in the sector. The law stipulates that the nation?s electricity sector should be ?unbundled? to allow other players than PLN to produce power and determine the price based on supply and demand.
However, presiding judge Jimly Asshidique, reading the Court?s decision, said that in line with the constitution which stipulates that all production sectors that affect the public should be controlled by the state, the electricity industry should be controlled by the government or state enterprises.
Under the nation?s legal system, the Court has the right to review laws endorsed by the House of Representatives and the government.
The petitions for the review of the law were filed several parties, including a lawyer association, PLN?s labor union, and the association of PLN?s retired workers, in late 2003. In their petition, they argued the law should be revoked because a liberalization of the power sector would result in the increase in power price and thus hurt the public?s interest. (godang)