Sacred Friday, Will Fuel Prices Rise Announced Today?

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government's attitude to make adjustments (read: increase) the price of fuel oil, aka BBM, is getting stronger. This indication is reflected in several signals.

First, the House of Representatives has not yet received the government's proposal regarding the plan to add the latest subsidy budget. This was conveyed directly by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Puan Maharani when answering reporters' questions at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta last week.

"Until now there has been no proposal from the government to increase fuel prices," he said after the MPR Annual Session on August 16.

Second, the stock of subsidized fuel is running low and is estimated to only last a maximum of two months from now. In fact, if the government wants to propose an additional budget, such as when it proposed an increase in subsidies in 2022 from Rp. 158 trillion to Rp. 502 trillion, it would take a long process.

"If you follow the current trend, pertalite will run out at the end of September and diesel will run out in October," said Finance Minister Sri Mulyani on Thursday, August 26.

Third, the government continues to push for a more targeted subsidy distribution narrative. The reason is that many of the subsidized policies on goods instruments are considered ineffective because they are also enjoyed by the wealthy.

Referring to the data shared by the Minister of Finance, it was recorded that around Rp. 127 trillion of the Rp. 143 trillion value of diesel subsidies was received by the business world and the top four layers of the rich society.

As for pertalite, Rp80 trillion of the total subsidy of Rp93 trillion was enjoyed by 30 percent of people with rich status in Indonesia.

Most recently, the editors managed to gather information that today the ministers of the economic sector are known to be holding a joint meeting to discuss the development of the subsidy budget provided by the state.

Coincidentally, the agenda for the meeting of the Director General of Budget, Ministry of Finance with the media crew, which was originally scheduled for this evening, had to be postponed only 1.5 hours before the event started.

So, will Friday, August 26th be the sacred day of the announcement of the adjustment (read: increase) in fuel prices?