Oil Subsidies to Increase
Tuesday, 25 April, 2006 | 18:08 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Vice President Jusuf Kalla has stated that subsidized oil prices will increase now that world oil prices have broken through the US$75 per barrel level.

“Yes, automatically subsidies will increase,” he said at the Dharmawangsa Hotel, Jakarta, yesterday (24/4).

According to the vice president, prices will increase as will subsidies, taking into account state revenues.

“We’ll see the calculations,” he said.

According to Kalla, the price of US$ 75 could increase or decrease.

“We hope it will not go down for a while, because if it increases, so does revenue. Don’t forget that,” he said.

In response to this, said Kalla, there were two possibilities, the US dollar rise could result in price increases, and also revenues could rise.

When asked about the effect on domestic fuel prices, Kalla said there was no need for these to increase.

“We will just look at efficiency, such as improving efficiencies as regards electricity,” he said.

Kalla acknowledged that the oil price rise would result in a large deficit.

Zaky Almubarok