Electricity Subsidy Extended Until September

JAKARTA - The government has again extended the electricity subsidy for people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic until September. This subsidy is intended for poor households in the 450 VA and 900 VA groups.

Director General of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Rida Mulyana, said that this total subsidy was provided for six months, starting last April. It is recorded that there are 24 million customers in the 450 VA class and 7.3 million customers in the 900 VA class.

"In total, 31.2 million subscribers have received assistance from this country. Hopefully, this assistance can be felt by our brothers and sisters, so that their lives will be helped a little," said Rida at Graha BNPB, East Jakarta, Wednesday, July 1.

Rida also mentioned the many complaints from the public who suspect an increase in the basic electricity tariff. There are also those who think the government is doing cross-subsidies to cover the cost of the electricity bill stimulus for poor citizens.

"We also need to emphasize that the government has not taken a decision to raise electricity rates until the end of another year. Even if there is anything, for example, the increase in monthly electricity bills is merely an increase in usage," said Rida.

Continuing, the Director of Commerce and Customer Management of PT. PLN (Persero) Bob Sarli explained, the scenario of implementing electricity tariff relief to the two groups. For customers using postpaid electricity, the subsidy will be given automatically.

"Later the discount will be added to the account, so that people don't have to pay again and the payment is 0 rupiah," said Bob.

Meanwhile, for prepaid customers or those who use electricity tokens, they are given free tokens with a KWH amount equal to the highest monthly usage from the last 3 months of usage.

Especially for prepaid, customers can get tokens on the official PLN website, namely www.pln.co.id. first, the customer enters the customer menu and goes to the COVID-19 stimulus options.

"After entering, enter the customer ID or meter number. If, for example, you forget the meter number, just take a photo of the meter at the house, look at the meter number and enter it. Then this free token will be displayed on the screen," he said.

The second way is through the PLN WhatsApp access number 0812-213-123. In the messaging application space, enter the id number or meter number, then the number will appear in the reply message.

Some time before, PLN recorded 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 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.

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.

"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.