By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, April 9 (ANTARA) - The government is launching an intensive campaign to promote the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in households in order to save kerosene amid increasing oil prices in the world market.
As part of the campaign, the government is distributing gas cylinders for free to economically-weak families across the country which is reputedly the most inefficient in energy consumption.
The government is so serious in the program that President Susilo Bambang Yudyonoyono himself made door-to-door calls on common people in the city to persuade them to use gas.
On Sunday, the president held a dialog with residents of Cempaka Baru in Central Jakarta. He told them , if they switched to gas, they would be "heroes."
The government would continue to intensify the implementation of the kerosene-to-gas conversion program to reduce fuel subsidy that was burdening the state budget.
Global crude prices are hovering above US$100 a barrel, well above the assumed oil price in the 2008 state budget. The government is still subsidizing certain types of fuel oil so that the surge in global oil prices has burdened the state budget. The massive use of gas is expected to reduce the state budget's burden.
Yudhoyono showed his seriousness again on Tuesday when speaking to participants of a regional government leadership consolidation forum organized by the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas).
A total of 86 participants consisting of mayors, district heads and regional legislative council (DPRD) leaders were present at the forum.
Yudhoyono clearly looked angry when he noticed some of the forum's participants had fallen asleep when he was trying to explain how inefficient the country was in the use of energy. "What a shame, wake them up! We are ashamed of the people who have elected us," the president said pointing at a participant who was sleeping in his seat.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla also acknowledged that Indonesia was one of the most inefficient countries in the use of kerosene as household fuel.
"In this world, Indonesia is the only country which is still using kerosene, apart from another one in Africa, but we are the most inefficient one," the vice president said.
So far the government still has to spend Rp45 trillion annually to subsidize kerosene for public consumption. "The government has to subsidize Rp6,500 per liter of kerosene. The production cost or economic value of a liter of kerosene is Rp8,500 but the government sells it to the public at Rp2,000 per liter," the vice president said.
Therefore, the government was working hard to popularize its kerosene-to-gas conversion program. "We have to make this program a success," he said.
To implement its kerosene-to-gas conversion program, the government would spend at least Rp15 trillion in funds. If the program is successful, it will save Rp40 trillion a year.
In the meantime, Yudianto, operations director of PT Energi Manajemen Indonesia (EMI) also opined that Indonesia was the most wasteful country in Asia in terms of energy consumption.
He said Indonesia was very inefficient in consuming energy because it was unable to optimize utilization of its alternative energy sources.
The government's policy of subsidizing fuel oil prices proved to have accustomed consumers to uncontrolled energy consumption.
According to the results of a survey by PT EMI and by other independent survey bodies, inefficient use of energy in Indonesia happened not only to the public consumers but also to industries, the impact of which needed a lot of attention.
Inefficient use of energy by textile industries in Indonesia is about 10 to 15 percent higher than that of the same industries in India and Vietnam. This excluded the use of other fuel oils and that of non-renewable sources. This actually poses another threat to the Indonesian people.
"All parties concerned need to take various effective steps to terminate the habit of Indonesian consumers who are wasteful in their daily energy consumption," Yudianto said.
He said that Java was the dominant region in Indonesia in the use of energy, namely it used some 60 percent of the country's energy need.
PT EMI, a non-governmental institute is committed to carrying out surveys and efficient energy use campaigns. It is launching a campaign aimed at changing the people's energy consumptive behaviors as well as those of industries.
"We are also encouraging industries to save on energies by providing them with energy audit for free. We have a short term target to make the people aware of economizing energy," Yudianto said. (T.A014/A/HAJM/20:05/a014) (T.A014/A/A014/A/A014) 09-04-2008 20:22:22
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