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.