Class action against Pertamina to go on
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court decided on Tuesday to continue the trial of a class action lawsuit filed against the state-owned Pertamina oil and gas company, demanding the company annul its "arbitrary" decision to increase the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by 40 percent.
The suit was filed on January by Kapak LPG, an alliance of 20 lawyers from the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), the Jakarta chapter of the Legal Aid Institute, the Indonesian Lawyers Association, the Indonesian Legal Aid Center and the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law.
In the sixth session on Tuesday presiding judge Ali Akmal Haky stated the decision was based on Article 46 of Consumer Protection Law No. 8/1999.
The law stipulates that a lawsuit from a group of consumers, consumer protection groups, non-governmental organizations or similar groups, can be filed with a general court.
Pertamina had earlier objected that such a case should be processed in the State Administrative Court.
The judge's decision was followed by thunderous applause from some 40 residents of Jakarta and Greater Jakarta who came to support the Kapak LPG.
"We are representatives of some 200,000 LPG users. We really object to the price hike, especially because there was no information campaign (about the hike)," Lies, a housewife living in Depok told The Jakarta Post.
The hike, she added, would really be a burden especially because other commodities would also increase as a consequence.
Kapak LPG filed the suit against both Pertamina and the Government Commissary Council over the LPG's price increase as outlined in a decree issued by Pertamina director Baihaki Hakim last November.
The price of LPG rose to Rp 2,100 per kilogram (about 22 US cents) from Rp 1,500 in November last year following the decree.
YLKI chairwoman Indah Suksmaningsih said that the judge's decision to continue the trial meant a lot to the efforts of consumer protection groups.
"We were glad that the judge understood," she said, adding that it was only the beginning of the whole trial.
This is the first class action filed since the 1999 consumer protection law took effect last April.
Meanwhile, one of Pertamina's lawyers A. Iwa Kerwara said that they were still going to submit an objection.
"We still think that this case should be processed in the State Administrative Court," he said.
According to Pertamina, the wide gap between local and international LPG prices had caused it to suffer losses of Rp 494 billion between April and September last year.
The international price for LPG was between Rp 2,655 and Rp 3,219 a kilogram last October, the company said.
The session was adjourned for one week. (hdn)