Threatened To Not Get Subsidized Fuel, Ojol Association Urges Government To Fight For Legality Of Public Transportation

Illustration (Photo: Doc Antara)

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources plans to limit the category of providing fuel oil subsidies (BBM).

One of those who are threatened with not getting subsidized fuel is online motorcycle taxis or ojol. This is because ojol is not included in the category of public transportation.

Chairman of the Indonesian Guard Ojek Online Driver Association Igun Wicaksono said that since 2018 his party had urged the government to encourage initiatives to the DPR so that legality as public transportation could be realized.

"We, the Association of Online Guard Ojek Drivers, urge the government to encourage initiatives to the DPR RI so that the legality of ojol as one of the public transportation can be realized or encourage the President of the Republic of Indonesia to issue an ojol legality Perppu so that it can become public transportation," he said when contacted by VOI, Wednesday, December 4.

But unfortunately, continued Igun, the government cannot provide this legality until now. In the midst of this dilemma, there are plans to remove ojol from the category of recipients of subsidized fuel.

"Suddenly the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources rejected ojol as a recipient of subsidized fuel because it was not public transportation, so we consider this to be something we cannot accept," he said.

In fact, continued Igun, his party hopes that the government of President Prabowo Subianto can formulate policies that can be more prosperous for ojol.

"Where are the pros of the people? This Ojol earns nothing and has even become a dairy cow from an application company and will be extorted again by the government, where the conscience of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil to the small people who work as ojol," he said.

According to Igun, if the impact of fuel subsidies for ojol is limited or revoked, inflation will increase. This condition will have an impact on 4 million ojol throughout Indonesia and around 21 million ojol service users.

"Bahlil must also calculate this matter, don't just pull out or limit subsidized fuel for ojol just because the black plate number is not yellow like public transportation," he said.

For your information, the latest news from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is that ojol can enjoy subsidized fuel because it will be categorized as a micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME).

Even so, no official decision has been issued by the government.