Jakarta, June 15 (Antara) - The government is urged to increase fuel
price soon so that it will not lose momentum ahead of the Ramadhan
fasting month and post-fasting festivities when commodity prices usually
sky-rocket.
Many
considered that the government should not be late in taking a decision
on fuel oil price hikes, although it actually has assured that the price
will be raised as soon as the House of Representatives (DPR)approves
it.
"The government had better made a decision soon. It should assure
whether it will raise it or not," Erwin Aksa, the deputy chairman of the
Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) for Small-scale
Enterprises (SME) and Cooperative Affairs, said on Thursday.
He
said that Kadin urged the government to take a definitive decision soon
so that it would not lose momentum and would not affect too much
national economic activities.
Kadin
saw many SME business players now were facing difficulties in arranging
their business plans as a result of uncertainties. They have faced
uncertainties regarding the government's fuel oil plan for the past
three months.
Business
plans could not yet be decided and had the potential to face problems
because there is no decision yet. Fuel price is one of the cost
components. "Even though the government has decided to raise it, we
still want to know when and how much. Businesses need to know this
soon," asserted Erwin.
He reminded that if the government did not decide it soon, it would
lose the momentum and the fasting month as well as the Idul Fitri
festivities would come soon. It would further burden businessmen who
face the fasting month and the post-fasting celebrations.
"Business will from now calculate Idul Fitri bonuses for their
employees, production increases and distribution capacity. We should
calculate how much the cost we have to bear. In this case, the energy
component is a decisive factor," Erwin said.
After all, now is the time for the government to raise fuel oil because
resistance from political parties and the public against the planned
price hikes was low.
Kadin feared the momentum would be lost and the inflation rate would
increase. This would cause further burden to the people. "If the
momentum is lost, the government will face heavier problem to raise it
later."
Kadin's opinion on the need of the government to decide
the price increase soon was shared by Destry Damayanti, economist of
Mandiri Sekuritas.
She said that the government should take a definitive decision on its
plan to raise subsidized fuel oils and explain when it would do it.
Destry said if the government cancelled its plan to hike the prices,
the national economy would experience a severe burden. The country's
trade balance would also suffer from pressures.
She said raising the price of fuel oils would also support the Bank
Indonesia (BI)'s recent move in raising its benchmark interest rate (BI
Rate).
"The government will support it (BI Rate) if it raises fuel oil prices.
It is a must for subsidized fuel prices to be hiked," Destry Damayanti
said on the sidelines of the Media Editors' summit in Nusa Dua in Bali
on Thursday.
Destry said that the government could not mere trade on BI in
maintaining macroeconomic stability because the instruments played by
the central bank only concerned interest rates, currency deprecation and
foreign exchange reserves.
"If the government trades on the central bank only, the macroeconomic
stability will be disturbed. The government should provide certainties
in the fiscal field and the real sector," she said.
She said that the BI earlier decision to increase the BI Rate by 25
basis points to 6 percent was a positive pre-emptive step in the face of
inflationary pressures. "This is a signal to prevent inflation from
rising too high. Pressures on the rupiah also led the BI to take a
policy, in this case the interest rate instrument," she said.
Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa also acknowledged that the
government plans to raise subsidized fuel oil prices did not merely
involve fiscal resilience considerations, but also national energy
resilience.
As
part of the country's energy resilience, fuel consumption should be
economized. "Our energy resilience is very low. Suppose that we are now
in a war situation, we have energy only enough for 20 days," Hatta
Radjasa told the Media editors' summit in Bali.
He said that if the government did not raise fuel oil prices, the
country's economy would not collapse all of a sudden but it would affect
the country's energy resilience.
"We should manage domestic fuel distribution well. We are no longer an
oil exporting country but importing one," he said.
Therefore, the government has been determined to raise subsidized fuel
oil prices. It is now waiting for endorsement of the DPR.
A draft 2013 revised budget, which included the government plan to
provide compensation for the poor if it raises fuel prices, is now under
the House deliberations.
Hatta said earlier that the on-going deliberations of the draft 2013
revised state budget, including on the adoption of a government plan to
cut fuel oil subsidy, would be completed on time.
"We should not have doubts about what is being deliberated by the DPR.
The DPR has the same opinion as the government. It thinks that the
deliberations of the draft must be finished. So, nothing should lead us
to have doubts that the DPR will reject it. We are optimistic that it
will be completed," Hatta said.
The minister said that based on regulations, deliberations should last
for 30 days at the most after the draft was submitted. So, it is
predicted that the deliberations of the draft state budget would be
finished on June 17, 2013. Agreement on that matter has been
achieved, Hatta said.
Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik said on Wednesday
that the fuel oil prices would be raised as soon as the House approved
the draft revised state budget during its plenary on June 17, 2013.
He said that the government has prepared a number of compensation
programs for poor people who would be affected by the fuel oil price
hikes. This is because price increase was expected to increase inflation
by 1.7 percent.
"If the DPR plenary session runs smoothly and endorses the revised
draft budget on June 17, 2013, the government will directly announce
subsidized fuel oil price hikes," the minister said.***3***
(T.A014/H-YH)
(T.SYS/A/A. Abdussalam/A/Yosep) 15-06-2013 16 |
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