Low subsidy, conflict blamed for power crisis

Low subsidy, conflict blamed for power crisis

M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon

Ambon schools did not pay their electricity bills for years on
end due to low power subsidies and the prolonged sectarian
conflict, Ambon school executives said on Saturday.

J. Soukotta, the school principal of Ambon 4 Vocational High
School, said that the power subsidy that the government paid to
the school was insufficient to cover the school's power use.

Each quarter, the government paid the school Rp 3,750,000
(US$390) to pay for electricity, while the school had to pay
electricity bills of at least Rp 4 million per month.

In an interview on Saturday, Soukotta also lashed out at PT
PLN for allegedly manipulating electricity bills. He said that
the amount in arrears that the schools had to pay was too much.
Of the 27 schools being threatened by PT PLN to have their power
off if they fail to pay arrears by May 3, Soukotta's school is
the biggest debtor with bills being unpaid since August 2002 and
now standing at Rp 214.6 million.

"It is unbelievable. There is a difference between what PT
PLN's employees record in field and the bills the company gives
to us, so that I suspect there are irregularities in the
measuring of electricity usage," said Soukotta.

In May 2003, for example, records on the electricity box
showed that the school used 2,013 kWh (kilowatt hours) of
electricity, but in the company's print out, it was stated that
the school had to pay for the use of 2,795 kWh for that month.
"Can you imagine if such a difference happened every month? If
the electricity used was recorded properly, we would not have to
pay that much," said Soukotta.

Soukotta also complained that the amount of money that the
schools had to pay in certain months was too high, even though
the schools were inactive during those months.

In June last year, the school paid the electricity company Rp
19.8 million, even though the school was closed for that month
due to school holidays. In May 2003, the school paid an
electricity bill for Rp 46 million even though the school had to
frequently shut down because of the sectarian conflict in the
city. Soukotta said that he had reported the irregularities to
local councillors for follow up.

He also called on the electricity company not to cut
electricity supplies on May 3 as it had earlier threatened. If
they went ahead with it, it would be truly ironic with the nation
celebrating National Education Day on May 2.

In contrast with the Ambon 4 Vocational High School, the Passo
Agricultural High School said that it had not paid electricity
bills amounting to Rp 69.6 million because parts of the school
had been occupied by refugees since 1999, when the first large
scale sectarian conflict broke out in the city.

At least 300 families occupied certain parts of the school and
they used electricity freely causing electricity bills to
increase inexorably, said E. Tomatala, head of internal affairs
at the school. The school was given a state subsidy amounting to
Rp 12 million a year, while electricity bills every year reached
Rp 25 million, said Tomatala.

The electricity supply was once cut by PT PLN between February
and November last year, but was restored in December last year
after the government paid a Rp 60 million electricity bill.

Separately, the company's manager for Maluku and North Maluku
operations, Suhud Setiabudi, said that schools had to report to
PT PLN if there occurred a difference between PT PLN's employee
records and the actual electricity bills.

"If the client reports it to us, then we can quickly correct
the bill. This is not irregularity," he said.

As was earlier reported by The Jakarta Post, Setiabudi has
threatened to cut electricity supplies to 27 schools in Ambon
city because they had not paid bills for several years. The
amount in arrears totaled Rp 375.4 million between 2000 and 2005.