National

Government Prepares Three Fuel Economy Policies
Friday, 01 July, 2005 | 04:33 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro has said that the government will implement integrated policies to encourage fuel economies.

The integrated policies consist of three parts, fiscal, non-fiscal and socialization of the policy, and these will be presented in a cabinet meeting next week.

“This is still being discussed by technical energy executors,” Yusgiantoro said in Jakarta on Tuesday (28/06)

The non-fiscal policies, he said, will be in the form of local or ministerial regulations stipulating audits on energy in government buildings with the aim of creating greater efficiency in the use of energy.

For fiscal policies, Yusgiantoro said that one of the policies will be implemented in the electricity sector by imposing several different tariffs in electricity used during peak-load hours (between 6pm and 10 pm) compared to time outside peak-load hours.

This is because there is 1,000-megawatt difference between peak load and basic load.

“The peak load can be decreased with the differences in tariffs,” said Yusgiantoro.

The fiscal policies can be imposed in other sectors, including transportation where a vehicle tax to reduce the use of fuels will be imposed.

“There will be a differentiation in this tax for people who own one, two or three vehicles,” said Yusgiantoro.
The vehicle tax is based on the government’s plan to obtain taxes from fuels.

However, the problem is that imposing some fuel taxes is still difficult to implement because fuel prices are subsidized.

“Therefore, the vehicle tax is to lessen the use of fuels,” said Yusgiantoro.

Other policies include socialization of fuel economies.
(Muhamad Fasabeni-Tempo News Room)