Member Of Commission VI Of The House Of Representatives Sentil PLN, Asks PMN Jumbo But Often Has Problems

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI DPR RI Mufti Aimah Nurul Anam highlighted a number of issues that involved PT PLN (Persero) in the agenda of a Working Meeting with the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises of the Republic of Indonesia Erick Thohir at the Nusantara I Building, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday, July 8 yesterday.

He highlighted the issue of disruption to the electricity token system, the alleged increase in tariffs that burdened the community, to village electricity programs that continued to swallow large budgets, but never finished.

"This week, many of our people also felt that when they filled in the token suddenly failed, but the credit when entered was not stuck. We also want to be audited about it, sir, why did this happen," said Mufti, quoted on Wednesday, July 9.

Not only that, he questioned the alleged increase in electricity rates, which many people now complain about.

"At that time we asked at the PLN meeting in this place, but there was no satisfactory answer about whether the PLN really did not tariff up 30-50 percent, to this day our people still feel that their tariff is up 30-50 percent," he said.

On the same occasion, he again reminded that the old problems related to the village electricity program carried out by PLN had not been resolved.

He said, in 2020, PLN had asked for State Capital Participation (PMN) of IDR 5 trillion to complete the village electricity program.

In 2023, PLN again asked for a larger budget, which was Rp. 10 trillion, for similar reasons. In fact, in 2024, PLN obtained an additional PMN of around Rp. 5.86 trillion to distribute electricity to more than 2000 villages.

"We, from 2020, at this place, PLN asked PMN 5 trillion, he said for village electricity. After that, he said the village electricity was complete. But then it was fun to know, in 2023 PLN also asked again in this place to complete the village electricity, which he said was only 5 thousand. And then until today 2024 finally asked for 10 trillion, given as well, and he said entirely for the village electricity program, "explained Mufti.

However, the report he received said otherwise. Based on the latest data from PLN, the ratio of electricityed villages has reached 99.92 percent or around 83,693 villages throughout Indonesia.

Of this number, around 77,942 villages are served directly by the PLN network, while the rest still rely on non-PLN sources or energy-efficient solar lights (LTSHE) supplied through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources program.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources noted that the national household electrification ratio only reached around 99.63 percent, with a new target of 99.7 percent by 2025.

The difference in the calculation approach between PLN which uses electricity village and ESDM indicators which emphasizes that this electricity household often triggers confusion.

Mufti assessed that the difference in data between PLN and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources indicates a weak coordination and supervision of the program.

This, according to him, became clearer when the Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia in a meeting some time ago also questioned different data regarding electricityed villages.

"We want to ask the Minister that actually has electricity in this village, how much electricity has not been available now? How come the data is never the same? In 2023 I have confirmed it at this place to the Minister, to the President Director of PLN, that he promised it was the last year of the village electricity program, but in fact in 2024 I still asked for the same budget, even much bigger and it turned out to be incomplete too," he said.

Therefore, Mufti urged the Ministry of SOEs to immediately conduct an investigative audit.

For him, this effort is important to ensure that every rupiah from state money through PMN is really absorbed effectively, so that people in the village can experience the benefits of electricity directly, not just stop at the budget absorption report.

"We ask you to explore this matter, so that in the future when we meet with the President Director of PLN again, the village electricity issue has been completed or at least the data is clear. So that next when asking for a budget, it can be clearer and clearer," said the PDI-Perjuangan Party politician.