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.
900-watt electricity subscribers to remain subsidized until 2017
Change Size
A technician from state-owned power firm PLN checks electricity infrastructure in Jakarta. (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)
T
he government and the House of Representatives have agreed to maintain a Rp 38.87 trillion (US$2.9 billion) electricity subsidy in the revised draft of the 2016 state budget, allowing subscribers to a 900-watt home electricity program to remain subsidized.
Previously, the Finance Ministry asked for a subsidy increase to Rp 54.9 trillion, to accommodate President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's order to cancel an initial plan of totally removing the electricity subsidy enjoyed by some middle-income homes.
House budgetary committee (Banggar) vice chairman Said Abdullah explained that the decision to lower the subsidy allocation was made considering that a higher subsidy would cause a widened budget deficit. In the revised draft of the state budget, the deficit was set at 2.48% of gross domestic product (GDP), equal to Rp 313 trillion.
"For now, the most important thing is to not maintain the fiscal deficit too wide," Said stated at a working meeting at the House complex in Jakarta on Thursday.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's director general for electricity, Jarman, said the subsidy would allow subscribers of the 900-watt home electricity program to enjoy existing low rates until 2017.
"In the meantime, we will take steps to ensure well-targeted subsidies in the future," he said. (ags)
