PLN books Rp 27t loss until Q3 2105

Sate owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) announced on Wednesday it suffered Rp 27.4 trillion in losses as of the third quarter of the year, despite increase in sales.

In the same period of last year, the firm booked Rp 15.3 trillion in net profit.

The firm blamed the huge losses on the sharp depreciation of the rupiah against the US dollar, which caused the firm to suffer Rp 43.6 trillion in foreign exchange losses during the period.

The firm sells its power to the public rupiah, while paying most of its expenses, including payment for the power produced by the Independent Power Producers (IPP) in dollar.

The firm noted that actually its sales rose by Rp 20.7 trillion or 15.56 percent to Rp 153.9 trillion thanks to the increase in the volume of power sold to customers and prices charged for the power. The volume rose 1.94 percent to 149.7 terra Watt hour (tWh) from 146.8 tWh in the same period of last year, while the price increased to an average Rp 1,036.16 per kWh from Rp 910.61 per kWh.

Operating profit fell by 3.63 percent to Rp 41.8 trillion until the third quarter of the year from Rp 43.6 trillion in the same period of last year.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon