Pertamina denies allegations of abuse in imported fuel

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina denied on Wednesday allegations that it had abused part of the imported fuel by reselling it to foreign countries.

“So far, we strictly follow the existing procedure and mechanism for both import of fuel and export of crude oil. Therefore we deny that Pertamina had re-sell the imported fuel, which is subsidized by the government, to foreign countries. There was a misunderstanding about Pertamina’s importing procedures and it is not proper to accuse Pertamina in this case,” Pertamina’s public relations officer and spokesman Hanung Budya said in a press release.

Earlier, the Team to Prevent Misuse and Smuggling of Fuel (TP3 BBM), which was abolished by the government recently, has revealed that some businessmen allegedly sold the subsidized fuel to foreign countries in dollar rates.

The modus operandi of these people is that they will get delivery orders with the help of some collaborators in the Pertamina and sell the fuel to foreign countries with dollar rates.

This was revealed by the head of TP3 BBM Slamet Singgih at his last press conference on Tuesday in Jakarta.

The motive, according to Slamet, behind this practice is to get huge profits for these businessmen.

Slamet said some Pertamina’s employees, who help arranged the delivery order, will also get commission from the businessmen.

He said his team received information that in some cases the imported fuel was diverted to foreign countries before the fuel reached Indonesia

The fuel import delivery orders are issued to certain people. (*)