House approves subsidized fuel quota increase

The House of Representatives energy commission has approved the government request to increase the subsidized fuel (BBM) quota in the revised 2011 state budget.

"We are approving the government’s proposal to increase the BBM quota up to 40, 49 million kiloliters per year, from the current 38, 59 kiloliters” Energy commission chairman Teuku Rifky Harsya said Thursday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

However, a dissenting opinion from the Golkar party reasoned that the quota increase would create a bigger deficit.

“It will cost the country another Rp 50 trillion [US$5.85 billion],” Bobby Rizaldy of Golkar said.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh denied this estimation, saying that the quota-increasing plan would only cost the government another Rp 25 trillion.

“So the total fuel subsidy would be Rp 120, 7 trillion from Rp 95, 96 trillion previously,” he said.