Minister of Finance Ensures Pertalite Fuel and Electricity Tariffs Will Not Increase

minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani
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At a time when the price of energy commodities is rising, the government through the Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, stated that there are still no plans to increase the Pertalite fuel and electricity tariffs.

Sri Mulyani said the government’s decision has not yet increased Pertalite’s electricity and fuel rates because it is to avoid a market shock and take into account the people’s purchasing power. If there is an increase, it is feared that economic growth will stagnate.

“The market is in shock that the commodities for oil & gas and electricity are administering prices. The choice is if we are shocked by the increase in raw materials, this is passed on to the public, the high increase in consumption will immediately drop. So until today, electricity has not increased,” Sri Mulyani said in CNBC. Indonesia Economic Outlook 2022, Tuesday (22/3/2022).

“Then the fuel price, our BBM does not go up. Pertamax has been affected because it is a rich group of people who consume it, but Pertalite is not changed, Premium is gone now,” She added.

She explained that Indonesia is also affected by several rising energy commodity prices just like the current global economy. The prices of global energy commodities are soaring, such as coal, nickel, oil and natural gas.

“So it’s like being hit by a storm and at a time when the economy is hobbled from the pandemic, so it’s not strong enough to get up,” said Sri Mulyani.

With the skyrocketing commodity prices, Sri Mulyani did not deny that the Indonesian commodity market was hit by a ‘shock’. Even so, his party still considers prices to increase, especially for oil and electricity.

She added, “So the current state budget calculates how much additional revenue comes from commodities, how much spending will be billed to us if this has not been passed over, and later the structure of the state budget will remain healthy or not.”