SOE Minister Signals Pertamax Fuel Prices Will Increase Next Month

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Some of the commodities increase news widely occurred in Indonesia. The latest, the increase in Pertamax fuel prices is reported to be realized shortly ahead of Ramadan and the 2022 Eid homecoming.

This news was hinted at by the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir. He gave a signal related to the increase in Pertamax fuel prices in the near future when giving a public lecture at Hasanuddin University, Wednesday (30/3/2022).

“The government has confirmed that Pertalite will be used as a subsidy, Pertamax has not. If Pertamax goes up, I’m sorry, but Pertalite, remains the subsidy,” he said, quoted from Hasanudin University’s YouTube broadcast.

The reason for the adjustment of Pertamax fuel prices was due to the high world oil price, which was above US$ 100 per barrel, as was the case with the Indonesian Crude Price (ICP). The provisional development of ICP as of March 24, 2022, was recorded at US$114.55 per barrel.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) assesses that the current economic price of RON 92 or Pertamax fuel is IDR 16,000 per liter.

“The war between Ukraine and Russia is still a factor that drives the increase in world oil prices. Crude oil supplies from Russia and Kazakhstan were disrupted due to damage to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline which resulted in reduced supplies to the European Union,” he said in a press release, Saturday (26/3/ 2022).

Furthermore, according to him, the high world oil prices greatly affect the price of fuel. For information, the upper limit of the selling price of the general type of fuel RON 92 for March 2022 is Rp. 14,526 per liter. This price is a reflection of the economic price of RON 92 fuel based on the basic price formula in calculating the retail selling price of general fuel types.

The President Director of Pertamina, Nicke Widyawati, also did the same thing, who asked for support from Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives so that they could immediately be allowed to increase the price of non-subsidized fuel for the type of RON 92 or Pertamax.

“Today Pertamax has not followed the market mechanism, so maybe support for Pertamax is needed,” Nicke said in a Hearing Meeting (RDP) with Commission VI DPR RI, Monday (28/3/2022).