TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt may overshoot subsidized fuel quota as sales curb lags
The government is in danger of selling more subsidized motor fuel than it intends this year, as a delay in purchase restrictions allows unfettered access to cheaper fuel brands to continue.
Change Size
Motorists line up for subsidized RON-90 Pertalite-brand fuel at a gas station in Bogor city, West Java, on Aug. 9, 2022. (Antara/Arif Firmansyah)
T
he government is in danger of selling more subsidized motor fuel than it intends this year, a ministry official has said, as a delay in purchase restrictions allows unfettered access to cheaper fuel brands to continue.
The Downstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency (BPH Migas) has set the subsidized fuel quota at 49.56 million kiloliters this year, up 2.6 million kl from last year, with 32.56 million kl allotted for RON-90 Pertalite gasoline and 17 million kl for Solar-brand diesel.
The quota marks a slight change from last year’s realized sales of 29.49 million kl of Pertalite and 17.6 million kl of Solar.
Tutuka Ariaji, oil and gas director general at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Tuesday that it was likely consumption would exceed the fuel quota unless restrictions were put in place to stop ineligible customers from buying subsidized fuel.
But before such a restriction could be put in place, he noted, the revision of Presidential Regulation No. 191/2014 had to be completed. It was supposed to have been finished in August of last year.
The ministry is working to pass the revision but as of Tuesday had yet to secure approval from the State Secretariat.
