Public asked to help control fuel cash aid
Public asked to help control fuel cash aid
JAKARTA (JP): The government has invited the public to
participate in monitoring the distribution of cash to the poor
and public transportation owners in order to prevent
irregularities.
"We invite the people to jointly watch over the implementation
of the cash aid system," Minister of Mines and Energy Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday.
He said the government would approach various societal groups,
including nongovernment organizations, to participate in the
joint monitoring program.
Bambang declined to elaborate on the monitoring mechanism,
saying the Ministry of Mines and Energy and Transportation would
do the monitoring under the coordination of the National
Development Planning Board (Bappenas).
The government had initially planned to implement a coupon
system to protect the poor from the fuel price increases but it
decided on Thursday to replace it with cash aid on the grounds
that the former was unfeasible.
Under the new cash system, all members of the public,
including the poor and public bus owners, will buy fuel at new
prices starting next month.
But the government will provide them with cash aid to enable
them to buy the commodity.
The government announced that starting from April 1 it would
increase the price of Premium gasoline to Rp 1,150 (15 US cents)
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.
Under the cash system, the government will provide Rp 10,000
for poor families to buy kerosene throughout the nine month
April-December 2000 fiscal year.
In total, the government plans to provide a total of Rp 320
billion in cash aid for poor families and public bus owners
throughout the country through the April-December 2000 fiscal
year.
Analysts have expressed their fear that most of the cash would
disappear due to corruption.
But Bambang said the government would do its utmost to prevent
misuse of the aid, citing that it had learned lessons from its
past mistakes when distributing the social safety net fund to the
poor.
Trillions of rupiah in social safety net funds provided by
World Bank reportedly disappeared in 1999 due to lack of
supervision.
Bambang said the Association of Land Transportation Owners
(Organda) was likely to increase bus fares in the future, but he
said the rise in fares was not because of the increase in fuel
prices.
Organda earlier said the cash aid to be distributed by the
government to bus owners was only enough to cover nine percent of
their soaring operational costs.
Despite the fuel cash aid, public bus owners would have to
raise fares by 60 percent in the near future due to soaring
prices of spare parts, Organda said.
Oil analyst Ramses Hutapea supported the government's decision
to axe the coupon system for a cash system.
He said the cash system would better ensure the government's
fuel subsidies were directly received by those in need.
"I have always suggested the government directly target
eligible people when distributing fuel subsidies," Ramses told
The Jakarta Post.
He said under the current system the government subsidizes
fuel prices for all members of the public. As such, people who
are not eligible for subsidy also benefit from cheap fuel.
Ramses also supported the government's plans to ask
nongovernmental organizations to participate in the joint
monitoring of the distribution of the cash aid. (bkm)