Price formula for biofuel approved
Thursday, April 16 2009 - 03:08 AM WIB
The basic prices of both biodiesel and bioethanol are calculated using the monthly price index for each of the commodity in Southeast Asian market set by energy market analyst Argus Media Ltd and the price index of the two commodities in the domestic market issued by the trade ministry.
The agreement was reached in a meeting on Wednesday headed by Director General of Oil and Gas Evita H Legowo, attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the MInistry of Trade, the government's technology think tank BPPT, state owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina and biofuel associations.
The Southeast Asian price index for biodiesel is based on the monthly price index for the commodity in Indonesia, while the Southeast Asian price index for bioethanol is based on the monthly price index of the commodity in Thailand.
"For bioethanol base price, we shall use Thailand's bioethanol price because Argus has yet to have the price for Indonesian ethanol," Evita said.
With such accounting principles, the basic price for biodiesel is calculated using a formula: The monthly price index of biodiesel in Asian market (set by Argus Media Ltd) plus the monthly price index of biodiesel in the domestic market and then divided by two.
The basic price for bioethanol is also calculated using the same formula: The monthly price index of bioethanol in the Asian market (set by Argus Media Ltd) plus the monthly price index of bioethanol in Indonesia and then divided by two.
The ministry said that the government and the private sector had also agreed to use Finance Minister?s decree No. 153/KMK.012/1982 on the exchange rate of rupiah against the U.S. dollar as the basis in calculating the exchange rate of the prices of both biodiesel and bioethanol.
The ministry hoped that the first price formula for both commodities could be issued in May. (godang)