PLN Admits It Has Distributed IDR 1.2 Trillion Per Month During The Pandemic

Illustration. (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - PT PLN (Persero) estimates that it has distributed the COVID-19 electricity stimulus to customers amounting to IDR 1.2 trillion per month during the pandemic that hit Indonesia.

"We estimate that the stimulus for customers from 450 VA to 900 VA will be around IDR 1.2 trillion per month," said PLN Capital and Management Director Syofvi Felienty Roekman as quoted from Antara, Thursday, September 24.

Syofvi also added that the stimulus for UMKM players was because the number of customers was not so large, the distribution was below Rp1 billion.

"This stimulus is indeed given monthly, and then PLN will collect through a subsidy scheme to the government," he said.

Regarding whether the electricity stimulus will continue or not after December this year, he said he would wait for further instructions from the government.

"We are the implementers for this stimulus, so whether it will be extended or ended in December this year we will wait for further instructions from the government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources," said Syofvi.

As for electricity sales, PLN is optimistic and continues to strive to grow positively around 0.5 percent by the end of this year.

"We are trying to remain positive, we have a number of scenarios so it is estimated that it will be approximately negative 0.5 percent to positive 0.5 percent. So we are trying to keep trying to achieve positive growth of 0.5 percent, this is our expectation with all efforts until the end this year, "said Syofvi.

According to him, several months of PLN's electricity sales have improved and the possibility of negativity is only around two percent at this time.

However, Syofvi also acknowledged that when the first pandemic hit Indonesia, PLN experienced a significant decline of up to negative 10 percent.

"So indeed when the COVID-19 pandemic first occurred in the first 2-3 months, our demand fell significantly enough to negatively drop 10 percent, which we have never experienced and the impact is quite difficult for PLN," he said.

According to him, this was not only experienced by PLN, but all utility companies in the world experienced a very drastic significant contraction.