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ndonesia’s top fuel distributor, Pertamina, is waiting for a government directive to determine whether to cut fuel prices in response to a downward trend in global crude oil prices.

Pertamina spokeswoman Fajriyah Usman said the company’s stance was to monitor developments, because the decision to lower retail prices of fuel was contingent on the outcome of changing government regulations.

“If the regulations or policies change, Pertamina will adjust accordingly,” she told reporters in Jakarta on Monday. Fajriyah noted that the state-owned company already lowered fuel prices earlier this year as an adjustment to the new price ceiling for gasoline and diesel.

The ceiling, implemented through Energy and Mineral Resources Ministerial Decree No. 187/2019, compelled Pertamina to lower prices by up to 12.1 percent in Jakarta. Rival distributors Shell and Total reduced prices 15.71 percent and 15.8 percent respectively for certain fuels.

Otherwise, Pertamina revised its nonsubsidized fuel prices on a monthly basis by taking into consideration market conditions, international crude oil prices and the rupiah-to-US-dollar exchange rate, said Fajriyah.

Variables have been tumbling this year. International crude oil benchmark Brent crashed 58.3 percent this year to US$27.67 per barrel on Tuesday, Bloomberg data shows. Meanwhile, the Indonesian rupiah hit a level unseen since the 1998 financial crisis at over 16,000 to the US dollar on the same day.

Responding to falling crude oil prices, local media outlets raised questions over when or if domestic fuel prices would follow suit. Economist Chatib Basri told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that, unlike in previous years, Pertamina was not likely to receive pressure to lower prices as the public found the current prices acceptable.

“There are no demonstrations on changing prices. It means the people are OK with current prices,” he said.

Chatib went on to say that adjusting fuel prices during a crash was risky: “Who can guarantee that oil prices will always stay at $26 per barrel? The trigger here is a price war and price wars will not last forever.”

Saudi Arabia started a price war with oil-exporting countries earlier this month when the world’s largest oil exporter slashed selling prices and set plans to increase production. The Middle Eastern country punished rival producer Russia for not accepting output limits previously set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Furthermore, Chatib, former finance minister between 2013 and 2014 under president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, argued that Indonesia was better off pocketing the difference in fuel prices to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati announced on March 20 that the government needed Rp 62.3 trillion ($3.9 billion) in state spending from the 2020 budget to develop healthcare systems and increase social fund disbursement and financial incentives for businesses.

Also responding to lower crude prices, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry recently revoked a price floor on gasoline and diesel set in the ministerial decree. The change gives fuel distributors room to lower prices but, unlike the price ceiling, does not require them to do so.

The ministry’s acting oil and gas director general, Ego Syahrial, said last week that the revocation was meant to “protect the people’s purchasing power and ensure business continuity” given the “sudden fluctuation in crude prices”.

Ego also said the ministry and Pertamina sought to increase oil imports while prices were at a four-year low. Imports would allow Indonesia to fulfill domestic fuel demand without swelling the oil and gas trade deficit, which reached $931.6 million in February, up 96 percent from the same month last year, Statistics Indonesia data shows.