The Coordinating Ministry For Marves Investigates Rp. 20 Million Electricity Bill By PLN To Welders In Malang

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves) is investigating the complaint of a surge in electricity of up to Rp20 million experienced by a welder in Malang named Teguh Wuryanto. This investigation aims to provide justice to Teguh.

Deputy for Maritime Sovereignty and Energy Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said Teguh's case must be investigated. This was said by Luhut Pandjaitan's men, to find out the source of the problem that caused the soaring electricity bills.

"As I said earlier, we are sending people to Malang, to a place that has a welding business, the increase is not an estimated rise," said Purbaya, in a video conference with journalists, Thursday, September 10.

To his party, said Purbaya, Teguh admitted that he had reported cases of the electricity bill hikes he experienced to PLN. However, there is no common ground for solving the problem. In fact, the burden of bills was fully delegated to Teguh, while PLN only provided relief in the form of gradual payments.

"So they don't feel that there is a clear and neutral referee to see what the user is like. What is clear is that if PLN is the monopoly in power, he will just say pay, that's the solution. But we send people there to see that there is fair treatment to customers. , "he said.

Director of Commerce and Customer Management of PLN, Bob Saril, answered the problem of the surge in electricity bills experienced by Teguh Wuryanto, a welding workshop entrepreneur from Bedali Village, Lawang District, Malang Regency. Where the customer gets an electricity bill of up to IDR 20 million.

Bob said, the case of the increase in bills experienced by Teguh occurred due to damage to the welding business' equipment. The tool in question is a capacitor to compensate for the use of electricity from the welding tool.

"He has a capacitor to compensate, so that he can get Kph. Based on the government tariff, for industry there is Kph, not a tariff, it's the difference that has to be paid for compensation. PLN bears the burden, there is a price. "he said, in a virtual discussion entitled 'Gijang Ganjing Electric Bill', Thursday, June 11.

However, said Bob, Teguh was not aware of any damage to the capacitor. As a result, his electricity bill has soared.

"Previously, the normal pay was Rp. 2 million. Because the equipment is still good, but now the equipment is damaged by the customer," he said

Bob also made an analogy of Teguh's case with a leaky motorcycle tank. According to him, gas station operators cannot be blamed for the wasteful use of fuel due to a leak in the gas tank. Now this is also true in this case.

Furthermore, Bob emphasized, Teguh must pay the bill in full. Moreover, there are already relief in the form of payments that can be paid in installments.

"So this has been clarified, the owner has also clarified, even so we still provide solutions and must be paid. Because this life must go on and PLN must continue to serve," he explained.

Bob said the amount of the electricity bill was only determined by the tariff and volume of usage. In addition, electricity rates have never increased since January 2017. Thus, the increase in electricity must be caused by the enlarging volume of use.

Previously, through his social media account, Teguh shared his experience of receiving electricity bill receipts which jumped drastically to reach Rp. 20 million in May. In fact, he felt that he had never previously received bills of more than Rp. 2,500,000 per month.

Based on the invoices, Teguh's repair shop electricity bill in February amounted to Rp2,152,494. Then in the following month IDR 921,067, then increased in April to IDR 1,218,912. However, in May, the bill increased 20-fold by Rp.20,158,686.