Post offices to disburse fuel subsidies
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)