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onsumers and businesses can now register for their electricity installation online, or via call center, at a cheaper price and in a shorter time.

In this digital era, when many things can be done online, the traditional procedure of registering for electricity installation in person at one of the offices of state-owned electricity company PLN appears outdated.

For households and businesses, it adds to time and costs. Getting electricity installed takes an average of 79 days now as a result of the many procedures. PLN says it hopes to reduce this time to 22 days in 2017.

The length of time it takes to get electricity installed has an adverse effect on the country’s competitiveness. Indonesia ranked 46th out of 189 countries surveyed for the “getting electricity” indicator in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report, a ranking that PLN is aiming to raise to 23rd next year.

“This one-stop service changes the system from manual to online,” said Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry director general for electricity Jarman. Households and businesses only need to access pln.go.id or contact the call center on 123 to immediately start the registration process.

Once registered, customers pay for installation only through PLN, in order to avoid any illicit fees that inspection agencies may have asked for in the past for issuing operational acceptance certificates (SLOs).

If PLN is unable to install the electricity within 25 days, customers can get a discount on their first month’s electricity bill worth 35 percent for non-subsidized customers and 20 percent for subsidized customers.

The installation fee has also decreased since the establishment of the one-stop service from Rp 969 (7 US cents) per volt to Rp 775 per volt, said PLN marketing division head Benny Marbun.

“So if one asks for a new installation of 1,300 volts, then the installation fee will amount to around Rp 1.2 million, with an additional SLO fee of Rp 85,000, and some other stamp duties. It will all be paid to PLN,” Benny said.

The one-stop service is part of the government’s effort to ease the conduct of business in the country. On Thursday evening, the government announced that it was scrapping many procedures, to reduce both time and money when starting a business, in its 12th economic stimulus package.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo wants Indonesia to rank 40th in the 2017 World Bank’s Doing Business report. Currently, Indonesia sits at 109th place among 189 economies, moving up from 120th in 2015.

The one-stop service is already available for Jakarta and Surabaya in East Java. The ministry hopes that the service will be available nationwide by October.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s Jarman said the one-stop service for electricity installation would combine the database from PLN, various low-voltage technical inspection agencies and the ministry’s database on institutions that can issue SLOs.

“We have streamlined databases that were separate from each other before. These three databases are connected online so that the public simply needs to apply through PLN and the electricity should be installed within 25 days,” Jarman said.

This new service is also expected to boost the nation’s electricity consumption, which remains low in comparison with Southeast Asian peers, despite the fact that Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest country in terms of population.

Indonesia’s electricity consumption was 788 kilowatt hours (kWh) from 2011 to 2015, compared with Singapore at 8,840 kWh, Malaysia’s 4,512 kWh and Thailand’s 2,471 kWh. Vietnam had a consumption rate of 1,306 kWh from 2011 to 2015.
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