Government increases gas price by 20 percent<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana has
\nissued a decree to raise the price of gas by 20 percent to Rp 385
\n(10 U.S. cents) and Rp 400 per cubic meter for industries and
\nother institutional buyers.<\/p>\n
The head of the marketing division of the state-owned gas
\ndistributor Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), Hari Pratoyo, said the
\nnew price was effective as of Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
\"But the old price still will be applied for the sale of gas
\nto households,\" Hari said Tuesday at a workshop on PGN's profile
\norganized by the company and the Jakarta branch of the
\nAssociation of Indonesian Journalists.<\/p>\n
He said the price of Rp 385 per cubic meter is being applied
\nto industrial and commercial customers consuming between 1,000
\ncubic meters and 300,000 cubic meters per month, while the tariff
\nof Rp 385 per cubic meter is for those using between 300,000
\ncubic meters and 5 million cubic meters.<\/p>\n
The new prices are only being applied to customers in Jakarta,
\nMedan, Surabaya and Bogor, while customers in Cirebon and West
\nJava are still able to pay under the old tariff.<\/p>\n
\"Customers in Cirebon are excluded from the new prices because
\nthey are mostly smaller industries. We are afraid they will
\nswitch to other fuels if they pay a higher tariff,\" said Hari.<\/p>\n
Industrial and commercial customers account for only 4 percent
\nof the company's 32,628 customers, but they consume 97 percent of
\nthe total 163.22 million cubic meters of gas sold by the company
\neach month.<\/p>\n
The company has 505 industrial customers, 886 commercial
\ncostumers, and 31,237 household customers, as of last September.<\/p>\n
He said the company raised the tariff to compensate for the
\nrising costs stemming from the sharp depreciation of the rupiah
\nagainst the U.S dollar.<\/p>\n
Hari said the rupiah's depreciation against the dollar had
\naffected the company since 65 percent of the gas it bought from
\nthe state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina was in dollars,
\nwhile the other 35 percent was in rupiah.<\/p>\n
According to Hari, PGN has to pay 65 percent of the gas in
\ndollars because Pertamina bought it from its joint operation
\ncontractors in dollars, while Pertamina was willing to sell the
\nother 35 percent of the gas in rupiah, because that amount was
\nproduced by Pertamina.<\/p>\n
The head of PGN's business and information assessment office,
\nArsyad Rangkuti, said on the same occasion that despite the
\ncurrent monetary crisis, PGN projected to increase its profit by
\n28.7 percent to Rp 103 billion by the end of this year, while its
\nrevenue would rise by 32 percent to Rp 623 billion.<\/p>\n
Its assets were projected to increase by 68 percent to Rp 1.1
\ntrillion by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\"The monetary crisis only has made PGN lose some potential
\nprofit. Had the monetary crisis not happened, PGN would have
\nearned a much higher profit this year,\" Arsyad said.<\/p>\n
PGN currently has 1.73 million kilometers in its gas
\ndistribution network throughout the country as of last September,
\nup from 1.6 million kilometers last year.<\/p>\n
According to Arsyad, PGN was scored by the Development and
\nFinance Control Board (BPKP) as a very healthy company from 1992
\nto 1995 and a healthy company in 1996. (jsk)<\/p>",
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