PLN Boss Opens Up About Electricity Tariffs This Year, Will It Increase?

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The President Director of PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) or PLN, Darmawan Prasodjo, has opened his voice regarding electricity tariffs this year, especially for non-subsidized electricity tariffs that are included in the tariff adjustment.

Initially, Darmawan said that the government had withheld or freezed tariff adjustments since 2017. As a result, electricity tariffs for non-subsidized electricity were still on hold or had not increased since that year.

As is known, the government plans to release the tariff adjustment again this year. If the tariff is released, there will be an increase in electricity rates for the non-subsidized class.

"We are only the operator. Meanwhile, whether this is a non-subsidized compensation mechanism that is borne by the government which is then calculated annually or a tariff adjustment. Now this Atta (automatic tariff adjustment) is released, there will be an increase in tariffs according to adjustments based on four parameters," he said in Working Meeting with Commission VII DPR, Wednesday, January 26.

The four parameters are the three-month average macroeconomic parameters, the realization of the rupiah exchange rate, the Indonesian Crude Price (ICP), the inflation rate and the Coal Benchmark Price (HPB).

Darmawan also explained that the increase in electricity rates for non-subsidized groups cannot be decided by PLN itself.

"Of course, this decision is not only at PLN, but a joint decision from the Indonesian House of Representatives, ESDM, the Ministry of Finance and the palace. We ourselves, in this case, please let us carry out the decision from the government. The decision (to increase or not) is not in our hands ," he said.

Previously, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) turned off the tariff adjustment or tariff adjustment for non-subsidized PLN electricity customers this year. This means that electricity rates have the potential to increase.

The Director General of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Rida Mulyana, said that this had been agreed with the Budget Agency or Banggar DPR RI. According to him, the electricity tariff adjustment is expected to occur in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

The reason is that the government has decided in the first quarter of the tariff adjustment. In the second quarter, it is estimated that there will be no regrets about the withdrawal because it is still in a state of the COVID-19 pandemic with the new variant, Omicron.