YLKI strongly protests planned power tariff hike

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Consumers Association (YLKI) challenged on Wednesday state-owned electric company PLN's plan to increase its rates.

"The public has never been made aware of the reasons for raising electricity rates," YLKI chairwoman Indah Suksmaningsih said during a seminar on consumer protection on Wednesday.

PLN recently asked the government to increase rates by 68 percent, but the request was rejected. Current rates for households which use between 450 VA and 2,200 VA of electricity are set at an average of Rp 206.22 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Indah said it would be better for PLN to improve its efficiency rather than raise rates.

Association executive Tini Hadad stressed the importance of transparent management.

"Why shouldn't PLN disclose that it has to buy fuel from Pertamina at prices higher than the market price," Tini asked.

She also said PLN purchased expensive electric power from private companies.

"PLN should cancel the deals because they surely have an effect on PLN's rates," she said.

PLN's production costs range from between three to four cents per kWh and it sells electricity to the public at an average of between two to two and a half cents per kWh. Meanwhile, private companies sell their electricity to PLN for between five and eight cents per kWh.

A member of YLKI's legal staff, Donny Lanazurra, said PLN could be taken to court in a class action lawsuit should the company fail to provide satisfactory service to the public.

"The suit is guaranteed by the 1999 Law on Consumer Protection," he said.

Noted lawyer Mas Achmad Santosa agreed with Donny. "Such a class action lawsuit will reduce the paperwork. There will be a high stack of cases if each person individually files a lawsuit."

PLN marketing director Eddi Wiriono pledged the company would improve its service to the public.

"We didn't pay enough attention to customers' satisfaction because we were trying to achieve our goal of keeping our rates low, hoping the customers would be happy," he said.

"We are now shifting our paradigm by keeping our costs low and concurrently improving our service to customers through increased efficiency," Eddi said. (05)