Director General Of Oil And Gas Explains Reasons For Not Being Able To Decide On The Sustainability Of The Cheap Gas Program

Director General of Oil and Gas Tutuka Ariadji. (Photo: Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of Commission VII DPR Eddy Soeparno asked the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) to evaluate thoroughly regarding the sustainability of the cheap gas program (HGBT).

Responding to this, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) through the Director General of Oil and Gas Tutuka Ariadji welcomed Eddy's direction.

Tutuka said that actually his party together with other Ministries and Institutions (K/L) continued to conduct a thorough evaluation of this policy from January 2022 to 20203.

"We have carried out several correspondences for evaluation since January 2022 with the Ministry of Industry for evaluation and continues for almost a year until 2023," said Tutuka in a Hearing Meeting with Commission VII, Wednesday, April 3.

Tutuka said that although it had carried out periodic evaluations, the authority of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources was still limited because there were some data from other Ministries/Egencies that could not be obtained easily.

"It's just that the ESDM's authority is limited and there is something we cannot get from other ministries. As an example of investment. We can't. Taxes, from the Ministry of Finance," continued Tutuka.

In the future, continued Tutuka, his party still needs a number of data from other Ministries/Agencies (K/L) so that they can decide on the sustainability of this cheap gas price program.

Tutuka said, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources understands the importance of this program so that it requires an in-depth evaluation before making a decision on the sustainability and expansion of this program.

"We understand that this is very important in the future to find the key in the evaluation. Go or no go because in our evaluation we are not alone. BPK has been present to us several times. Why is that so, we have answered. If there is no evaluation, I think it will be difficult in the future to say it is the way. So evaluation is very key," concluded Tutuka.