Minister: no govt intervention in BPS
Semarang, Central Java (ANTARA News) - Communications and Information Minister Mohammad Nuh said that the government has a high respect of the independence of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).
"The government does not wish and will not intervene what the BPS is doing. BPS is a producer of data which are very important to the decision makers, because decisions made without the support of data will I think deviate," he told journalists in Semarang on Friday night in relation to stabilzing the prices of the people`s necessaries following price fluctuations and hikes marked with an inflation of 1.77 in January 2008.
It is very interesting, he said, that nobody is complaining about the 1.77 inflation rate, but when the inflation rate stood at nil coma such and such, many people had protested. "Those who complained said that it is impossible that the inflation stands at nil coma such and such," he said.
Therefore, he said, that data serve as a mirror. Mirrors are of three kinds, namely flat, dome-shaped, and concave. "The government wishes for a flat mirror, as we do not wish to make data dome-shaped or concave, because data are always as they are, not more and no less, let data speak for themselves as they are," he stressed.
BPS, he added, needs to be given freedom and its independence supported. "Whatever had been produced by BPS must be considered official data. If you don`t believe this, please make other data, data are not supposed to be resisted by perception. Data must be fought also with data," he said.
Stabilisation (of daily nessaries), he said, has two variables, namely price and supply."What good is a favorable price of a product without the availability of the product itslef, and the other way around. The two variables are the key word," he said.
The ministry of communications and information, he added, along with the ministry of trade, the ministry of agriculture, the Logistic Agency, and BPS will soon issue a release on availability and prices of the daily necessaries, including kerosene.
"It contains daily, weekly, and monthly data. All these will facilitate the cheking of price of the people`s daily necessaries, and we will even send the release to the media as service from the ministry of communications and information," he said.
In the meantime, touching on kerosene, he said that the price of kerosene set in the State Budget at about 60 US dollars per barrel, but in actual practice the price reaches 70 to 80 US dollars per barrel, and there is even a tendency the price may reach 90 US dollars per barrel.
The consequence of the price being higher than 90 dollars per barrel, he said, Indonesia`s kerosene consumption reaches 1.034 million barrels, while production stood only at 850,000 barrels, leaving a difference of about 150,000 barrels per day.
"This means that we have to import the 150,000 barrels because we produce only 850,000 barrels, while we need l.034 million barrels, we are suffering this shortage, so that the subsidy is very high," he said.
The thing to be done, he said, is not to raise the price of kerosene, it should be Rp8.000 per liter, but sold to Pertamina at Rp2.000 per liter, and Pertamina sold the commodity into the field at Rp2.800 to Rp3.000 per liter, not to mention delivery cost, which means that each liter received a subsidiy of Rp6,000.
Her also said that in anticipation of the distribution of kerosene missing the target, every person needs to have a coupon to obtain kerosene.
"We do not panic in such a situation, but it is quite a waste of such a huge amount is misused, in other words, the kerosene which is supposed to be received by the rightful person, is used for other purposes or businesses," he said.
That is why, he said, it would be necessary to switch the open distribution system, namely anyone has the right to stand in a line and buy the commodity, to a closed system by using coupons," he said.
When asked when such a coupon system would be introduced, he said it must be prepared by the ministry of energy and mineral resources and expected to be carried out soon.
"The technical part is being prepared by the ministry of energy and mineral resoures obviously in association with the relevant provincial, city and regency administrations for the mechanism of the distribution of the coupons," he said. (*)
"The government does not wish and will not intervene what the BPS is doing. BPS is a producer of data which are very important to the decision makers, because decisions made without the support of data will I think deviate," he told journalists in Semarang on Friday night in relation to stabilzing the prices of the people`s necessaries following price fluctuations and hikes marked with an inflation of 1.77 in January 2008.
It is very interesting, he said, that nobody is complaining about the 1.77 inflation rate, but when the inflation rate stood at nil coma such and such, many people had protested. "Those who complained said that it is impossible that the inflation stands at nil coma such and such," he said.
Therefore, he said, that data serve as a mirror. Mirrors are of three kinds, namely flat, dome-shaped, and concave. "The government wishes for a flat mirror, as we do not wish to make data dome-shaped or concave, because data are always as they are, not more and no less, let data speak for themselves as they are," he stressed.
BPS, he added, needs to be given freedom and its independence supported. "Whatever had been produced by BPS must be considered official data. If you don`t believe this, please make other data, data are not supposed to be resisted by perception. Data must be fought also with data," he said.
Stabilisation (of daily nessaries), he said, has two variables, namely price and supply."What good is a favorable price of a product without the availability of the product itslef, and the other way around. The two variables are the key word," he said.
The ministry of communications and information, he added, along with the ministry of trade, the ministry of agriculture, the Logistic Agency, and BPS will soon issue a release on availability and prices of the daily necessaries, including kerosene.
"It contains daily, weekly, and monthly data. All these will facilitate the cheking of price of the people`s daily necessaries, and we will even send the release to the media as service from the ministry of communications and information," he said.
In the meantime, touching on kerosene, he said that the price of kerosene set in the State Budget at about 60 US dollars per barrel, but in actual practice the price reaches 70 to 80 US dollars per barrel, and there is even a tendency the price may reach 90 US dollars per barrel.
The consequence of the price being higher than 90 dollars per barrel, he said, Indonesia`s kerosene consumption reaches 1.034 million barrels, while production stood only at 850,000 barrels, leaving a difference of about 150,000 barrels per day.
"This means that we have to import the 150,000 barrels because we produce only 850,000 barrels, while we need l.034 million barrels, we are suffering this shortage, so that the subsidy is very high," he said.
The thing to be done, he said, is not to raise the price of kerosene, it should be Rp8.000 per liter, but sold to Pertamina at Rp2.000 per liter, and Pertamina sold the commodity into the field at Rp2.800 to Rp3.000 per liter, not to mention delivery cost, which means that each liter received a subsidiy of Rp6,000.
Her also said that in anticipation of the distribution of kerosene missing the target, every person needs to have a coupon to obtain kerosene.
"We do not panic in such a situation, but it is quite a waste of such a huge amount is misused, in other words, the kerosene which is supposed to be received by the rightful person, is used for other purposes or businesses," he said.
That is why, he said, it would be necessary to switch the open distribution system, namely anyone has the right to stand in a line and buy the commodity, to a closed system by using coupons," he said.
When asked when such a coupon system would be introduced, he said it must be prepared by the ministry of energy and mineral resources and expected to be carried out soon.
"The technical part is being prepared by the ministry of energy and mineral resoures obviously in association with the relevant provincial, city and regency administrations for the mechanism of the distribution of the coupons," he said. (*)