Price cuts fall short of expectations: Legislators

Price cuts fall short of expectations: Legislators

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government's decision to reduce the hikes in fuel prices and
to offer discounts to business and industrial electricity
consumers fell far short of expectations, legislators said
Tuesday.

They also criticized the government for announcing the price
cuts without consulting the House of Representatives (DPR).

"If the government considers its decision to have met the
public's demands, it will have to confront the protesters by
itself," Golkar legislator Baharuddin Aritonang said here on
Tuesday.

Fellow legislators Endin A.J. Soefihara of the United
Development Party (PPP) and Yusuf Muhammad of the National
Awakening Party (PKB) expressed similar concerns, saying that
their respective factions would continue to voice the public's
opposition to the fuel price hikes.

Bowing to increasing public pressure, the government rolled
back fuel price rises on Monday and offered a 2.5 percent
discount to business and industrial electricity consumers.

The decision, however, was less than the full cancellation of
the utility price hikes as many had been demanding. The
government raised electricity and telephone charges and removed
fuel subsidies on Jan. 1 so as to help finance the country's 2003
state budget.

The move drew strong protests from trade unions, students,
non-governmental organizations and the public at large as it came
just after President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a presidential
decree granting full release and discharge to business tycoons
accused of squandering the wealth of the country.

Alvin Lie Ling Piao of the Reform Faction noted that the new
fuel prices were still unjust as the subsidies extended to
ordinary people were much smaller than the facilities granted to
business tycoons.

"Therefore, the fuel price hikes must be annulled, not
reduced," Alvin said.

Yusuf said the PKB faction would continue to voice the
people's opposition to the price hikes.

"Our demands are clear. The government must scrap its decision
to increase fuel prices and electricity charges," he said.

According to Yusuf, his faction would not only focus on the
fuel price issue, but also question the sale of a 41.9 government
stake in state telecommunications firm PT Indosat to Singapore
Technologies Telemedia Pte Ltd (STT) and the government's
decision to release big-fish debtors from the possibility of
criminal charges.

Although the government has reduced fuel prices, President
Megawati Soekarnoputri had not revised Presidential Decrees No.
29/2002 and No.9 0/2002 on the electricity charge and fuel price
increases respectively.

"Without the revision of these decrees, the implementation of
the new prices lacks a legal foundation as it is based merely on
a Cabinet decision," Alvin said.

M.S. Kaban from the Crescent Star Party (PBB) told the
government to re-evaluate the assets of state electricity firm PT
PLN and crack down on power theft by big business.

As soon as the utility price hikes were announced on Jan. 1,
labor activists, students and lower-income people throughout the
country began staging almost daily protests.

In some cities, the protests turned violent, resulting in
clashes between protesters and security personnel.

The increasing protests forced the House to summon the
government to a meeting, during which both sides agreed to delay
the increases in telephone charges and review the electricity and
fuel price hikes.