Pertamina faces class action
Monday, December 18 2000 - 04:30 AM WIB
A group of nine people claiming to represent around 200 thousand households in the greater Jakarta area (Jabotabek) has filed a legal action against the state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina for the recent increase in the price of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
The Tempo Interaktif online said that this was the first class action made since the law on consumers protection was made effective last year. Tempo said that the nine people were accompanied by lawyers from various non-governmental organizations.
"This is the first class action made since the law on consumers protection is effective. We want to test how far the government commitment on the issue is," said executive of the YLKI consumers protection group Indah Suksmaningsih.
Indah said that the decision by Pertamina to raise the LPG price did not involved any discussion with the consumers. She said that Pertamina had been arrogant for failing to listen to its customers.
Indah said that the class action demanded Pertamina to annul the LPG price increase decision and pay around Rp 900 million to the nine people for immaterial losses.
Pertamina recently increased the price of LPG from Rp 1,500 per Kg to 2,100 per Kg. (*)