SMS

I think the next step should be to subsidize public transportation and to ensure that public transportation provides excellent service so people will not be tempted to use private vehicles.

Ridwan AN
Yogyakarta

Having increased the prices of subsidized Premium gasoline and diesel fuel, we must as soon as possible use much cheaper LPG fuel in cars and motorcycles.

It is indeed a pity that such an ordinary system could not have been introduced long before the increase of the subsidized fuel.

We all need and have to support the Jokowi/JK policies, not to sabotage or jeopardize them.

Moeljono Adikoesoemo
Jakarta

 Surely, Indonesians are shocked and disappointed at the newly announced fuel price, but they can'€™t do anything, as they have no power. However, they will be even more disappointed if the education, infrastructure, and health sector improvements that President Jokowi promised cannot be achieved using the funds saved by cutting the fuel subsidy.

Rizkia
 

Indonesians are very shocked because they are very self-centered. They only think of themselves and not what is good for the country. Please fast-forward to your next medical appointment and check what is left of the tiny dot that sits between your ears.

Rojak

I do not agree with the increase in fuel even though the government and the President have any number of reasons to do it, because we must not just think of inflation rates but also of the people who will have difficulty with the price increases.

Heliyana

One thing that I have noticed is lots of references to the oil-price drop and this is indeed true, but also consider that the rupiah has been increasing against the US dollar so it almost negates this downward drop in the price of oil '€” not quite, but it doesn'€™t mean the price at the pump drops as much as folks would like.

Some are saying it should be passed onto the consumers and the price at the pump should drop, but you already have cheap fuel compared to the rest of the world, so the difference actually goes onto the subsidies.

If you were paying full price, then it should be passed onto the pump price. Saying that, my wife and I have not noticed any drop in the price of the non-subsidized fuel that we put in the car.

LAF

The fact is that the fuel subsidies were a remnant of the Soeharto era when Indonesia was still member of OPEC and an oil-exporting country. I do remember well when I came here in the 1990s: at that time the price for one liter of fuel was Rp 350 (or about ten US cents with the exchange rate of the time). In Europe the price was already at $1.10 per liter.

So of course when I bought my first car here I really didn'€™t care that it guzzled 20 to 25 liters per 100 kilometers (it was an old hardtop), since the cost for it was about what I would have paid for two liters in Europe.

But now people really need to realize that the argument that the natural riches of Indonesia are here for everyone to enjoy has no value in this particular case since Indonesia needs to import fuel, so it is just to a limited extent a local resource (also of course there was never enough invested to find new oil fields '€” especially by Pertamina).

Of course the argument that 70 percent of the subsidies are being enjoyed by people who can afford a car is correct '€” just look at photos of yesterday'€™s queues at gasoline stations: plenty of middle-class cars waiting there to fill up a very last time.

And then there'€™s another 15 percent of the total subsidized fuel being sold illegally abroad, benefiting even fewer people who so far made a huge profit on this. And plenty of those are connected with the government '€” police, army, Pertamina employees. There is a huge network of fuel mafia operating from various ports in Indonesia '€” mostly from ports close to other countries. Those caught so far are just the very small fish in the pond.

IA Groot

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