Government Prepares Plan To Change Elpiji Subsidy To Cash

The Directorate General of Oil and Gas (Migas) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is working on a plan to convert the form of LPG subsidies which were originally commodity-based into direct assistance in the form of cash to the public.

"The government is committed to leading to targeted subsidies, namely the transformation of commodities to people," said Director General (Dirjen) Migas, Tutuka Ariadji, quoted Wednesday, January 17.

To get there, he said, the government will continue to encourage registration of Population Identification Numbers (NIK) and Family Cards (KK) at the official 3 kg LPG base. So far, only 31.5 million NIKs have been registered out of a total of 189 million NIKs listed in the Targeting Data for the Acceleration of the Elimination of Extreme Poverty (P3KE).

"We will continue to progress until people understand very well that using this, both bases that sell and people who buy transactions with the system. Meanwhile at the base and will continue to grow to reach retailers," continued Tutuka.

Later, after the data has been collected and data collection has been completed, the government will start to carry out subsidies directly to individuals in cash.

He explained that currently the Government and Pertamina continue to approach by name by address, where regulations have been prepared to determine the steps needed in the process.

"Now, in the context of the process towards by name by address. Now, we have prepared a regulatory device for what needs to be done," added Tutuka.

Tutuka said this policy reflected in the implementation of the diesel purchase program using a QR code.

According to him, currently, the registration of the subsidy program, precisely with the QR Code, has almost reached 100 percent and has proven successful in suppressing diesel consumption, which previously continued to overquate.

"And we hope this will also run at LPG," concluded Tutuka.