PLN to issue bonds to pay debts to Pertamina

State-owned electricity firm PT PLN would repay its debts worth Rp 23 trillion to state-oil and gas company PT Pertamina by issuing bonds late this year.

 

The value of the bonds is the same as the amount of debt owed by PLN to Pertamina, said Sofyan Djalil, State Minister for State-Owned Enterprises at a hearing with the House of Representatives’ Budgetary Committee in Jakarta on Monday.

 

According to him, the bonds will carry commercial interest.

 

Separately, President Director of Pertamina Ari Soemarno said that PLN owed Pertamina as much as Rp 23 trillion up to April 2007.

 

Also in the hearing, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani proposed an increase in subsidy for PLN in 2008 to Rp 28.5 trillion from Rp 26.7 trillion agreed upon by the House's Budgetary Committee and the government's team on Sept. 19. The balance is the amount of subsidy which the government left unpaid by the government in 2005. (Godang)