New LPG gas price hits housewives and retailers

Nana Rukmana and Andi Hajramurni ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Cirebon, Makassar   |  Wed, 08/27/2008 10:29 AM  |  The Archipelago

Housewives, vendors and other consumers in Cirebon and Makassar have voiced their dissatisfaction with the current rise in price and scarcity of cooking gas (LPG).

The decision by state oil and gas company PT Pertamina to increase the price of a 12-kg canister of LPG from Rp 63,000 (US$6.85) to Rp 69,000 -- as of Aug. 25 -- would further burden them, they said, especially with the current rise in the price of a number of basic necessities ahead of the Ramadan fasting month.

Housewives are worried retailers will raise the price even further.

"The LPG price increase places a heavier burden on us, especially before Ramadan, when the price of basic foods starts to creep up," said Yuniarsih, from Kedawung district in West Java.

Another housewife, Amelia, from Pasindangan district, expressed a similar sentiment, saying the price increase would cause greater difficulty for residents who have shifted from kerosene to LPG.

"We were encouraged to replace kerosene with LPG on the grounds that it's cheaper, but now that we've already switched to LPG, the price keeps rising," she added.

Although the current LPG price is set at Rp 69,000 per 12-kg canister, in practice retailers could sell it at a higher price, somewhere between Rp 73,000 and Rp 75,000.

Food vendors have also complained about the price hike, expressing concern that it could affect earnings.

"We are still being burdened by the rising prices of other basic goods. The rise in the price of LPG will further encumber us," said Oding, a fried rice hawker in Mundu.

Oding said his profits had suffered since the rise in the price of cooking oil, declining from Rp 50,000 to Rp 30,000 per day -- due to higher prices for raw ingredients and people's lower buying power.

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, Razak, 35, had to skip work and travel around the city in order to find some LPG, as his family has been out of gas for nearly a month and has had to use kerosene, which is more expensive, instead.

"Kerosene is quite scarce now. We have to queue at the distributor because the retail price is higher than LPG, but the problem is LPG is also becoming more scarce," he said.

A number of LPG retailers said they were in short supply of cooking gas, as distributors only came twice or three times a week, supplying at most 10 canisters.

An LPG retailer in Makassar, Andi Besse, said he had had trouble for the past month obtaining LPG from suppliers. Some 30 empty 12-kg canisters were stacked in front of his shop.

Another retailer, Jimmy, 27, said he came by LPG only after fetching it himself from distributors, sometimes stopping trucks that were carrying it. He was only able to acquire about 40 canisters per day.

Pertamina's Makassar marketing unit spokeswoman Rosina Nurdin, denied LPG was in short supply in the city, when asked for confirmation Monday.

Pertamina supplies South Sulawesi with 170 metric tons (MT) of LPG daily, some 60 percent of which is allocated to Makassar, she added.

"We're baffled by the shortage because we've been supplying the province with 170 MT of LPG each day, in line with the needs of people in the province," she said.

Her office has dispatched a fact-finding team to ascertain the causes of the LPG shortage and to monitor sales, especially following the price increase, she added.

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