Print Loss Of IDR 38.88 Trillion, PLN Waiting For Realization Of Government Debt

Capture the screen of the President Director of PLN, Zulkifli Zaini during RDP with Commission VII DPR RI. (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Persero) or PLN posted a loss of IDR 38.88 trillion in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, in the same period last year, this state-owned company managed to score a net profit of IDR 4.157 trillion.

President Director of PLN, Zulkifli Zaini, said the losses that were printed in the first quarter of 2020 were because the rupiah exchange rate against the United States dollar (US) weakened quite high. It is recorded that the rupiah on December 31, 2019 was at IDR 14,244 per US dollar, while at the end of the first quarter of 2020 it was IDR 16,367 per US dollar.

"The company's net loss is Rp. 38.88 trillion. That is the loss due to foreign exchange differences," he said at a hearing with Commission VII DPR RI, Wednesday, June 17.

Even so, Zulkifli explained, in the first quarter of 2020, this state-owned company was still able to book an operating profit of Rp.6.81 trillion, positive EBITDA of Rp.16.93 trillion and an EBITDA margin of Rp.19.78 trillion.

Zulkifli said, up to the first quarter of 2020, his party had also recorded an increase in electricity sales volume of 4.62 percent or an increase of 2,727 gigawatt hours compared to 59,059 gigawatts in the first quarter of 2019, to 61,785 gigawatts in the first quarter of 2020.

Furthermore, Zulkifli explained, with the condition that tariffs have remained or have not increased since 2017, revenues still grew 5.08 percent or Rp3.4 trillion from Rp.66.85 trillion in the first quarter of 2019 to Rp70.25 trillion in the current year.

Then, revenue from customer connection amounted to Rp1.83 trillion. This value is up 13.87 percent from the same period last year. Then, other operating income amounted to IDR622.61 billion in the same time period.

"Customers were still growing until the end of March reaching 76.5 million, an increase of 3.57 million from the position at the end of March 2019 of 72.77 million subscribers. The electrification ratio increased from 98.89 percent at the end of 2019 to 98.93 percent in March 2020. , "he said.

However, PLN's operating expenses borne by PLN also experienced a drastic increase of Rp. 78.8 trillion in the first three months of this year. This means that there was an increase of seven percent from IDR 73.63 trillion in the first quarter of 2019.

As for the details of PLN's operating expenses, namely, the annual rental expense is IDR 1 trillion. There was an increase of 7.06 percent. Then, the maintenance expense increased by 3.23 percent on an annual basis to IDR 4.35 trillion.

Personnel expenses decreased from Rp5.61 trillion in the first quarter of 2019 to Rp5.6 trillion. Depreciation of fixed assets amounting to Rp.8.8 trillion, depreciation of use rights assets of Rp.698.68 billion, and other expenses of Rp1.77 trillion in the first quarter of 2020.

That way, the total operating expenses can be seen to rise higher than PLN's operating income. The company posted an operating loss before subsidies of IDR 6.09 trillion in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 29.13 percent from IDR 4.71 trillion in the same period last year.

However, PLN received a government electricity subsidy of IDR 12.89 trillion in the first quarter of 2020. This amount is an increase compared to the IDR 11.52 trillion government electricity subsidy in the same period in 2019. However, PLN recorded a net foreign exchange loss of IDR 51.97 trillion in first quarter 2020. This is due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of the rupiah against foreign currencies.

Zulfikli said that with the current difficult conditions, his party is waiting for the payment of compensation funds from the government. The reason is, the government promised to pay this year.

However, said Zulkifli, until now the government has not paid the electricity subsidy compensation fund that was billed in the 2018 and 2019 periods. The nominal compensation that the government must pay reaches Rp45 trillion.

"According to what the government told us, the compensation debt for 2018 and 2019 Rp45 trillion will be paid. But he said it will be paid this year," he said.