Keppres 133/200 team told to dissolve
Friday, October 12 2001 - 01:37 AM WIB
SP PLN lawyers coordinator Fauzie Yusuf Hasibuan called on PLN to reject the proposal from PEC that the latter had filed with the Keppres 133/2000 team because the proposal, if accepted, would burden not only PLN, but also the government.
"The establishment of the Keppres 133/2000 team is useless if the team fail to fight for the people's aspirations. Therefore it is fair to question the negotiation between the team and Paiton," Fauzie said.
He contended the team had very low bargaining power in its negotiation with Paiton. He suggested that the negotiation with Paiton be conducted directly by PLN and SP PLN.
"If the negotiations are handed over to PLN and SP PLN, it will become more effective, and Paiton will not be able to set their electricity prices at their whim," he said.
Fauzi also called on the government and the House of Representatives to refuse the proposal from Paiton, that could drag the government into bailing out Paiton.
In the proposal, Paiton asked the government to pay investment cost of US$5 million per month to Paiton during a period of 30 years.
According to Fauzi, if the proposal is approved, it would mean that the government would pay $1.5 billion of Paiton debt to lenders of $1.82 billion.
"The purchase-sale contract between PLN and Paiton is purely a contract between companies, not involving the government. But (Paiton) wants to transfer it into the government's obligation. That's not right," Fauzi said.
In addition, Paiton still demanded too high prices for its electricity, at $4.65 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, much higher than $3.5 U.S cents for electricity offered by Tanjung Jati power plant in Central Java, and still higher than the fair price of $4.1 cents calculated by an independent auditor, Lavalin. (*)