PLN's discount offer receives cool response
Saturday, April 22 2000 - 05:30 AM WIB
The offer made by the state electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to provide a 20 percent tariff discount on the use of power during holidays received cool response from domestic industries, the Bisnis Indonesia daily reported in its headline story on Saturday.
Chairman of the Indonesian Cable Makers Association (Apkabel) Kusudiarso Hadinoto said that the 20 percent discount would only be appealing to booming industries.
Kusudiarso said that for the domestic anemic cable industry, it's better to stop operation during holidays because of the current low market demand.
"The cable industry prefers to stop operation during holidays rather than taking the 20 percent discount. It's also quite difficult to organize labor to come to the plants on holidays," he said.
He said that the 20 percent discount was meaningless because the electricity tariff had earlier increased by up to 101 percent.
He said that the ideal tariff discount should be around 40 percent.
He added that the 20 percent tariff discount would be meaningless if the quality of PLN power supply continued to be unstable.
PLN announced earlier that it would provide a 20 percent discount on the use of electricity by industry on Saturday, Sunday and holidays following calls from various industries for PLN to lower its electricity tariff. (*)