Power price hike policy must be canceled: NGOs
Power price hike policy must be canceled: NGOs
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have demanded that the
government cancel its quarterly power price hike policy as it
would only further burden poor people.
They said that an independent review of the policy must be
carried out first before the government proceeds with it.
Fabby Tumiwa of the Working Group on Power Sector
Restructuring (WG-PSR) said on Sunday that the current power
price was already too expensive for lower-income households.
"On average, according to our survey, poor families must
allocate 10 percent of their total monthly spending on
electricity. This is too much," said Fabby.
The state-owned electricity company will increase its power
prices again on April 1 as provided for under the government's
power price policy.
Since 2001, PLN has been raising its power prices by an
average of 6 percent every quarter. The government's power price
policy is aimed at bringing domestic electricity prices up to an
average level of 7 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) by 2005.
The higher electricity prices are necessary to help avoid PLN
from going bankrupt and attract new investment to the sector to
prevent a power crisis in the future.
The current average price level of Rp 488 per kWh is equal to
around 5.42 U.S. cents.
But Fabby warned that another increase in power prices would
further reduce the purchasing power of low-income people, who
have already suffered from years of economic difficulties.
Business Watch Indonesia (BWI), another NGO, shared Fabby's
view.
Yanuar Nugroho of BWI said that PLN must not concentrate on
boosting profit at the expense of low-income people.
He said that raising power prices would negatively affect the
welfare of poor families.
Separately, Suyono, a driver with a courier company who lives
in Tangerang, strongly protested the power price hike policy.
He said that his monthly income was only around Rp 1 million,
and he had to allocate around Rp 75,000 per month for electricity
alone.
"If the price (of electricity) continues to increase, it will
place a major burden on our family," he told The Jakarta Post.