Analyst Appreciates Cabinet Secretary's Explanation on Pertamax Price Hike

Political communication analyst Hendri Satrio has commended Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya for stepping in to explain the Pertamax price increase through the Cabinet Secretariat’s Instagram account. The founder of the KedaiKOPI Survey Institute argued that there was at least an effort by the government to communicate with the public amid a minimal response from technical agencies. “What Teddy did, although good, is very minimal and once again Teddy is putting himself on the line,” said Hensa, as he is familiarly known, in a statement in Jakarta on Monday. He stressed that fuel price increases such as Pertamax should be communicated verbally and directly to the public, complete with a press conference explaining the reasons and impacts in detail, as a form of transparency. “The Pertamax increase should have been announced orally, there should have been a press conference explaining in detail why the price went up and what the impact on the public is,” Hensa said. In his post, the Cabinet Secretary explained that Pertamax is a type of non-subsidised fuel oil, so Pertamina sells it at a price that follows global oil price movements. Nevertheless, since Pertamina raised the price of Pertamax and other non-subsidised fuel variants, the per-litre price of non-subsidised fuel in Indonesia is still cheaper compared to RON 92/95 fuel in several Southeast Asian countries, such as the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Singapore. “Pertamax is a non-subsidised fuel. This means the price of Pertamax must follow global oil prices. What are subsidised fuels? Pertalite and Diesel. The price of subsidised fuel has not increased,” Teddy said. Since global oil prices rose due to the impact of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, the price of subsidised fuel has not increased, remaining at Rp10,000 per litre for the Pertalite variant and Rp6,800 per litre for Diesel. Meanwhile, the price of non-subsidised fuel such as Pertamax only increased as of 10 June 2026, from Rp12,300 per litre to Rp16,250 per litre.