For Food Security, Boss Pupuk Indonesia Asks For The Industrial Cheap Gas Program To Continue

Industrial gas illustration (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) has asked the government to continue with certain natural gas price policies (HGBT) or industrial cheap gas next year for national food security.

For your information, the price of cheap industrial gas refers to HGBT, which is 6 US dollars per MMBTU for the industry. One of those who get it is the fertilizer industry.

President Director of PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) Rahmad Pribadi said that gas prices greatly affect production costs and also the selling price of fertilizers.

"If the price of gas, the impact on fertilizer prices increases. If the price of fertilizer increases, there will be two impacts; if subsidized fertilizers, subsidized fertilizer bills will increase, if non-subsidized, then the price of fertilizer purchased by farmers will increase," said Rahmad in Media Gathering, in Jakarta, quoted Tuesday, March 19.

If the price of fertilizer increases faster than commodity prices, continued Rahmad, there will be a decrease in the use of fertilizers. As a result, agricultural productivity will also decrease.

Furthermore, Rahmad said that this would be a long chain of impact. Therefore, Rahmad assessed that there is a connection between cheap gas prices for the fertilizer industry and national food security.

"In our opinion, HGBT has a direct impact on (so as to) achieve national food security. Therefore, we hope that HGBT will continue," he said.

Rahmad admitted that he received information that the government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Agriculture and SKK Migas agreed to continue the industry's cheap gas policy.

"Everyone agreed that for the sake of national food security, HGBT, God willing, will continue," he said.