Inaugurating Fisherman's Gas Station In Pekalongan, Teten: Can Cut Production Costs To 30 Percent

Illustration of fishermen (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM) together with the Ministry of SOEs through PT Pertamina (Persero) and PT Pertamina Patra Niaga inaugurated a Fisherman's Gas Station (SPBUN) in Pekalongan, Central Java. This is an effort to improve the welfare of fishermen.

"The existence of this gas station is expected to be part of the Solar Program for Fishermen Cooperatives (SOLUSI) which is currently being carried out in piloting in five locations from the target of 59 locations in 2023," said Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki in a written statement, Wednesday, August 30.

Minister Teten said the Fishermen's SOLUSI Program was one of the government's efforts to help improve fishermen's welfare, by distributing subsidized fuel appropriately at normal prices.

According to him, so far fishermen have received fuel from the middlemen at a higher price, so it is quite a burden on production costs. By buying subsidized fuel through this gas station, the cost of producing fishermen can be cut by 30 percent.

"Traditional fishermen 60 percent of their production costs are to buy fuel. If they buy it at retailers at a higher price, the proceeds will run out to buy fuel so that it is difficult for them to prosper," said Teten.

Furthermore, Teten said that currently there are five regions of seven gas station pilots that have been operating, namely in Aceh with the independent financing of cooperatives, North Sumatra with the independent financing of cooperatives, Indramayu with the independent financing of cooperatives, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) through cooperatives that use the LPDB financing scheme, and in Pekalongan using the financing scheme of PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk.

"Our Roadmap until 2025 will build 250 gas stations through the Fisherman's SOLUTION Program," he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of Infrastructure and Logistics of PT Pertamina (Persero) Alfian Nasution appreciated the role of the Kemenkop UKM and the Ministry of SOEs which actively helped the Company in ensuring that the distribution of subsidized fuel was right on target, one of which was through the existence of gas stations managed by cooperatives.

Through this Fisherman's SOLUSI Program, he hopes that fishermen will no longer have to worry about not getting the required fuel allocation

"We hope that this program can be an answer for fishermen and be a contribution from Pertamina to bring fuel closer to fishermen, hopefully this program can be used properly," he said.

With the Fisherman's SOLUTION Program, more than 113 thousand liters of fuel have been distributed for fishing needs and looking for fish for fishermen. It is noted that currently more than a thousand transactions at the SOLUSI Fisherman program gas station have been recorded in the Proper Subsidy system so that the distribution of subsidized fuel is more transparent.