REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Deputy Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or popularly known as Ahok hopes that central government can subsidize Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to stabilize gas price in the country. He expressed his disagreement with government policy in rising price of Pertamina's 12 kg LPG cylinder worth 1,000 IDR per kilogram (kg).

"I wonder why government does not subsidize gas. I think that Indonesian citizens, especially in rural areas do not require fuel subsidy, but gas subsidy," Ahok said recently.

Ahok said that the decision to raise LPG price by Pertamina would fail efforts of conversion program from oil to gas. Residents outside Jakarta have bought expensive fuel.

Pertamina's decision was based on the recommendation by Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) after finding that Pertamina suffered 7.73 trillion IDR in financial losses from the sale of non-subsidized LPG from 2011 to October 2012. If Pertamina used such reason, Ahok said that the company just wasted the funds for procurement of radio frequency identification (RFID) to control distribution of fuel subsidy in Indonesia.

Ahok said that RFID was only for commercial vehicles. He said that private vehicles should not use fuel subsidy. It will be more reasonable.

Now, Pertamina officially sells 12 kg LPG cylinder with price of 82 thousand IDR, increased from 70 thousand IDR.

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