Pertamina criticized over Sempati Air's fuel debts

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil company Pertamina was criticized yesterday by legislators for allowing private airline company Sempati Air to fall behind in paying its debts for the procurement of aviation fuel.

The legislators, including Iskandar Mandji and Suriansjah of Golkar and Bachtiar Chamsjah of the United Development Party, said Pertamina should have stopped supplying aviation turbine oil to Sempati Air after the airline erred on paying its debts.

"Where is justice if Pertamina as a state owned company gives special treatment dispensation to a private firm but punishes (state owned electricity company) PLN for not paying its debts on time?" Suriansjah said.

Pertamina had once stopped supplying diesel oil to PLN because it fell behind in settling its debts, which caused PLN to reduce power supply to consumers, said Iskandar.

Debate

The debate started yesterday when Iskandar asked why Sempati Air had been allowed to owe so much money to Pertamina for such a long time without any penalty.

Pertamina's president director Feisal Abda'oe was first reluctant to confirm if the airline company, jointly owned by Hutomo Mandala Putra, Mohammad (Bob) Hasan and an Army-related foundation, had owed debts to Pertamina.

"Actually, it is not entirely accurate to say that it (Sempati Air) did not pay its debt. Sometimes it made the payment as scheduled, sometimes not," said Feisal.

He said that other airlines, including Garuda, also sometimes fell behind in settling its fuel debts to Pertamina.

"But at least, you should tell us how much the airline (Sempati Air) currently owes to Pertamina," said Iskandar.

Feisal refused to reveal Sempati's fuel debts, saying he would send the House members information on the debts later.

According to Feisal, the contracts between Pertamina, Sempati and other airlines require the payment of aviation fuel one month after delivery.

Feisal said Pertamina served warning to the airlines if they failed to pay their fuel as scheduled. He said that no punishment was imposed on erring airlines.

"If Pertamina stops supplying fuel to the airlines, they will have to stop operation. Are you ready to have no domestic flights at all?" asked Feisal.

"If you are ready, we shall soon stop supplying gas to any erring airlines. But we shall tell the people that the measure is taken at the request of legislators," Feisal added.

"I still recommend you to stop it (the supply of aviation gas to Sempati Air)," said Bachtiar.

"We don't mind if there are no flights for a week," said Surjansah. (jsk)