Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said on Wednesday that it was mulling over scrapping several routes that were already being sailed by commercial shipping companies.

“The government’s and the private sector’s roles should be more balanced. Therefore, the maritime highway routes should be focused on non-commercial routes, while the commercial ones should be given to private operators or state enterprises,” he said.

At present, the government assigns state shipping firm Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Pelni) to operate freighters in six routes to carry staple goods, such as rice, sugar, flour, cooking oil, eggs, steel and cement. The delivery of those goods is expected to push down prices that soar in remote areas, especially in the eastern part of the country.

The six routes connect major ports, such as Tanjung Perak in East Java and Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta, with remote areas, such as Tual in Maluku.

In one route, for instance, a freighter will sail from Tanjung Priok to Biak in Papua, with stops in Makassar, South Sulawesi; Manokwari and Wasior in West Papua; and Nabire and Serui in Papua. The return trip takes around 4,644 nautical miles in total.

Budi said the Jakarta-South Sulawesi-Papua route would potentially be changed to South Sulawesi-Papua as a commercial freighter was already traveling from Jakarta to South Sulawesi.

“There is a large port there [in Makassar, South Sulawesi] and the price of rice is also similar to the price in Java — why do we have to travel there?” he said. The revision might also include the Jakarta-Riau Islands route that may be altered to Riau Islands-West Kalimantan.

Budi said he had notified Pelni of the revision plan and added that the ministry was preparing to put on tender as many as three additional routes for private shipping companies in the next two weeks. Operations for the three new routes are scheduled for next year.

The ministry expects the overall revision to help reduce costs as it will no longer subsidize several routes. It has allocated Rp 257.9 billion (US$19.7 million) in public service obligations (PSO) this year to subsidize trips in the six routes, an increase from Rp 30 billion in 2015, as the program only commenced late last year.

At the same time, the ministry hopes to see higher trip frequencies and shorter duration in several routes following the change. A freighter could travel from Riau Islands to West Kalimantan once every 10 days, instead of once every 21 days as it does now.

The government previously claimed that the program has helped slash prices in remote areas by 20 to 30 percent. The end goal is also to cut down on the overall logistics costs plaguing the business climate.

Indonesian logistics costs account for 24.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), among the highest in the Southeast Asian region, according to data from the World Bank.

However, despite the claim of lower prices, the government still has to solve the occasional problem of the low load factor or empty freighters returning to major ports when they should ideally transport goods from the eastern region as well.

Separately, Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA) chairperson Carmelita Hartoto said the planned route revision would create healthier competition between the private sector and the government.

The association also proposes several routes for the revision, including ones that connect East Java-Maluku-Papua and East Java-East Nusa Tenggara, as private firms already sail those routes.

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