Batam and Bali: Smart Premium Card
Wednesday, 26 March, 2008 | 14:43 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government will limit the subsidized gas of Premium and Solar. The limitation will be implemented through a smart-card system. It will be first tried in Batam and Bali.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, said Batam and Bali were selected for geographic and affluence reasons. “They have better a life style and buying power, and are easy to be controlled because they're fairly isolated,” he said yesterday.

He explained that the government will not rush to implement this fuel limitation nationally. The government still needs to disseminate the information.

According to Tubagus Haryono, head of the Downstream Oil and Gas Regulating Body, he said Rp 50 billion is needed for the premium and solar limitation project. It will be for disseminating the information, calculating the number of vehicles, and to research fuel consumption behavior.

Tubagus said, the kerosene limitation project with a controlled card will also be implemented. The project launching will be on 2 April in Semarang, Central Java, and continue to other regions in Java that do not have the conversion program yet.

He is optimistic that kerosene limitation will succeed 100 percent. However, he does not think premium and solar limitation will have the same success. It will only be 50 percent of the government’s target to reduce the subsidy of Rp 6,8 trillion to Rp 3.4 trillion. The assumption is based on the currency rate of Rp 9,150 and the Indonesian oil price of US$ 83 per barrel.

Parliament and government have changed crude oil to US$ 95 per barrel with the currency rate of Rp 9,100. Because of this, Tubagus said, “I don't know how much we can save. ”

He added, that premium and solar limits will be executed in June or July 2008.

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