Ombudsman Publishes MyPertamina Quick Research, Majority Of Respondents Don't Know The Reason Why Subsidized Fuel Quota Is Restricted

JAKARTA - The Ombudsman has issued a rapid assessment or a quick study on the restrictions on subsidized fuel oil types such as pertalite and diesel through the MyPertamina application.

"At the implementation level, the use of MyPertamina in the field causes public complaints. So, the Indonesian Ombudsman in this case through the Main Assistant V considers it necessary to conduct a quick study of the use of MyPertamina during the trial period in the registration stage and distribution of subsidized fuel," said Ombudsman Member Hery Susanto was reported by ANTARA, Thursday, August 25.

Hery said the Central Ombudsman team and 31 Ombudsman Representative Offices had observed the implementation of the MyPertamina policy on August 8-12, 2022.

Field survey activities were carried out by directly interviewing 781 respondents in 31 provinces throughout Indonesia spread over 38 cities and six gas station districts with purposive random sampling as a sample.

Respondents surveyed are drivers of private cars under 1,500 cc, drivers of public transportation, drivers of goods transport, and motorcyclists under 250 cc.

The respondents from gas station officers were taken from the sample of gas stations that received the assignment to implement the MyPertamina application. Respondents of SPBU officers who were interviewed were 66 people who were spread by purposive random sampling at 66 gas stations in Indonesia.

The Ombudsman carried out this quick study aimed at finding out the implementation of policies on the use of the MyPertamina application in collecting data on consumers who bought BBM, as well as knowing the obstacles and problems in implementing the MyPertamina application trial as a way to limit the purchase of subsidized fuel.

In addition, other objectives include identifying potential maladministration in the implementation of the subsidized fuel purchase program through the MyPertamina application and providing suggestions and input for improving the policy of implementing the use of MyPertamina in purchasing fuel.

Hery said that of the 781 respondents interviewed by the Ombudsman, the majority of respondents, or 82 percent were workers with incomes ranging from less than IDR 500,000 to IDR 4.5 million. This shows that gas station consumer respondents are dominated by the lower middle class.

Then, the majority of respondents, equivalent to 67.1 percent, know information related to government policies for limiting subsidized fuels for Pertalite and Solar types.

The Ombudsman noted that 58.5 percent of respondents did not know the reason why the government planned to limit the quota for subsidized fuel.

Meanwhile, as many as 72.9 percent of respondents claimed to have not registered with the MyPertamina application. They reasoned that they did not know the technical registration.

Hery conveyed that the MyPertamina socialization was not massive and was only limited to certain gas stations through social media information, causing confusion in information and the lack of public participation.

Not only that, respondents assessed that the implementation of MyPertamina has not been carried out on a massive scale considering that not all districts and cities, and existing gas stations have obtained the facilities or tools used in the MyPertamina program.

"Community groups such as fishermen, farmers, traders, and others still have difficulty in accessing subsidized fuel because of the far distance from gas stations and the scarcity of subsidized fuel in the field," said Hery.