Post offices to disburse fuel subsidies
JAKARTA (JP): The government will distribute Rp 495.8 billion (US$66 million) in fuel subsidies to poor families and public transportation owners through post offices, a senior government official said on Monday.
Acting head of the government's fuel subsidy team Muhammad Abduh said poor families would receive a total of Rp 164.8 billion in cash for the purchase of kerosene, while public transportation owners would be given a total of Rp 331 billion in fuel subsidies for the purchase of automotive diesel oil and Premium gasoline.
Abduh, who is also second deputy of the National Development Planning Board (Bapenas), said the government preferred using post offices to banks to distribute the fuel subsidies because the former had wider operations than the latter in the country.
"Through post offices, we expect to channel the subsidy funds to the remotest areas within two weeks," he said in a media conference, adding that the funds would be disbursed on April 1.
The government plans to increase fuel prices on April 1 in an effort to cut fuel subsidies in the nine month April-December 2000 fiscal year.
It aims to protect poor families and public transportation passengers from the increases by providing them with cash aid to buy fuel at the new prices.
The government said it would raise the price of Premium gasoline to Rp 1,150 from Rp 1,000 per liter, automotive diesel oil to Rp 600 from Rp 550 per liter, kerosene to Rp 350 from Rp 280 and bunker oil to Rp 400 from Rp 350 per liter.
Abduh said that each poor family would be provided with Rp 10,000 in subsidies to buy a total of 135 liters of kerosene for the nine-month period of April to December this year. Each family is assumed to use 15 liters of kerosene per month.
He said based on the data from the social safety net program there were 17.4 million poor families in the country eligible to receive the kerosene subsidy.
He said the subsidy would be sent to poor families using the already-present distribution system used by the social safety net program.
The government has been distributing social safety net funds, including scholarships and money for food, to the poor to alleviate the impact of the economic crisis.
"By using the existing distribution channel of the social safety net, the government will be able to disburse the funds without additional costs," he said.
Furthermore, he said, the social safety net program already had a well-structured monitoring system from Bappenas down to the provinces, districts and subdistricts.
"We've done this monitoring for two years now," he said.
According to Abduh, the Finance Ministry would first disburse the kerosene subsidy to the Central Post Office in Jakarta.
The Central Post Office would subsequently channel the funds to regency post offices, which keep the lists of persons eligible for the subsidy.
The funds and the list would then be sent to the post office closest to the homes of the targeted people.
He also the government would distribute fuel subsidies to public transportation owners based on data provided by a team comprising of the Land Transportation Control Agency (DLLJAR), the Association of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) and regional governments.
He said the government would initially only distribute subsidies to public transportation owners to cover three months's worth of gasoline.
"After three months, we shall re-evaluate the data on the numbers of public transportation vehicles in operation," he said. (bkm)