Tangerang named as pilot project for distribution of subsidized kerosene

Tangerang municipality in Banten province has been named as a location for a pilot project for the distribution of the heavily subsidized kerosene in the country.

Tubagus Haryono, the chief of the government’s regulatory body for oil and gas downstream industries BPH Migas, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that Tangerang was chosen as the due to the high rate of the kerosene demand in the municipality.

“It has been also chosen as the pilot project because subsidized kerosene is prone to be abused in town like Tangerang,” he said. “In the industrial town like Tangerang, the subsidized kerosene can be easily abused for industrial uses,” he told reporters after the signing of the cooperation agreement with Tangerang mayor Wahidin Halim.

Under the pilot project arrangement, poor families would be given controlling cards to allow them to buy the highly subsidized kerosene. The controlling cards should be shown to the appointed kerosene retailers when ever they buy the kerosene.

He said that if the pilot project is successfully carried out, the system would also be adopted in other regencies and municipalities so that the distribution of the highly subsidized kerosene would not be ended in the wrong recipients.

The highly subsidized kerosene which is sold only at Rp 2,000 per litter is often smuggled for industrial uses. Unlike the households, the industries have to buy the kerosene at a market price or about Rp 6,000 per litter. (dino)