JP/13/Power

JP/13/Power

New power bill to be completed next week: Govt

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The government expects to be able to complete the draft of a new
law on electricity next week, which will be immediately submitted
to the House of Representatives for deliberation.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro
said on Friday that the new law would be a revised version of
Electricity Law No. 20/2002, which was annulled by the
Constitutional Court on Wednesday.

He said that the drafting of the new law would not take much
time as it would only focus on revising three chapters of the
above law.

"I expect it to be completed next week," Purnomo said.

The Electricity Law, endorsed by the House in 2002, aims at a
the gradual liberalization of the power sector, which has been
monopolized for decades by state electricity firm PT PLN.

But the Constitutional Court argued that electricity was a
commodity vital to the lives of many citizens and should
therefore remain under government control.

The court reviewed the above Electricity Law upon complaints
filed on behalf of PLN workers by non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) and labor unions, which claimed the law would lead to
layoffs and higher electricity rates for consumers.

Only three articles -- Articles 16, 17 and 68 -- contain
stipulations on liberalizing the power sector.

The government has said the new law would take a "softer"
approach to liberalizing the power generation sector.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie said
that under the revised law, investors could still invest in power
plant development, but they would not be permitted to sell and
distribute the power directly to consumers.

"To sell and distribute the power, they have to cooperate with
state-owned electricity company PLN," he added.