PLN suffers Rp 15t loss in first-half
PLN suffers Rp 15t loss in first-half
JAKARTA (JP): State electricity company PT PLN suffered a net
loss of Rp 14.99 trillion (US$1.3 billion) for the first half of
this year compared to a net profit of Rp 720 billion in the same
period of 1997.
The company's consolidated financial statement for the period
from January to June this year shows a foreign exchange loss of
Rp 12.84 trillion, much higher than the Rp 85.56 billion loss
reported in the first half of 1997.
The 1998 half-yearly financial results were based on a rupiah
exchange rate of Rp 14,975 to the dollar, while the 1997 results
were based on an exchange rate of Rp 2,474 to the dollar.
Net sales were placed at Rp 6.46 trillion for the first six
months of this year, up 25 percent on the Rp 5.17 trillion
recorded in the same period last year, the company announced
Saturday.
Operating costs soared to Rp 7.3 trillion in the first half of
this year, from Rp 4 trillion in the same period of 1997.
The company said its debts totaled Rp 49.8 trillion during the
first half of this year, of which Rp 12.4 trillion was held in
the form of short-term loans.
The monetary crisis has severely affected PLN because it
receives its earnings in rupiah but pays most of its operating
costs in U.S. dollars. Its operating costs include the purchase
of fuel, power supplied by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and
spare parts for its transmission network and generating plants.
PLN has projected that it will need to spend $590 million on
buying gas and another $400 million buying power from IPPs in the
current fiscal year which ends in March 1999.
It also expects to spend $79 million on the purchase of
geothermal steam from contractors to the state oil and gas
company Pertamina, $288 million to purchase spare parts and
another $103 million servicing its debts.
The company has projected a loss of Rp 11 trillion in the
1998/1999 fiscal year assuming no power price increases and an
average exchange rate of Rp 6,000 to the dollar.
The loss will increase by Rp 1 billion for every Rp 1,000 by
which the rupiah's actual U.S. dollar exchange rate exceeds the
rate assumed in the forecast.
The government, aware of the company's problems, announced a
20 percent increase in power prices in May and planned follow up
increases of 18 percent in August and 20 percent in November.
But the government later annulled the May price increase for
domestic consumption following a public outcry and delayed the
price increase planned for August.
PLN has tried to renegotiate the price at which contractors
supply power and gas prices to improve its financial performance,
but its efforts thus far have brought no results.
Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto has said
President B.J. Habibie will issue a decree assigning Coordinating
Minister for Development Supervision and Administrative Reforms
Hartarto to negotiations with IPPs and gas contractors later this
week. (jsk)