Class action against Pertamina to go on
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)