Minister Of Energy And Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif: Selling Biodiesel, The Government Saves A Budget Of IDR 38.31 Trillion

Pertamina gas station. (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - The government, through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), said that it had succeeded in saving the state budget of Rp. 38.31 trillion or the equivalent of US $ 2.66 billion.

ESDM Minister Arifin Tasrif said that this achievement was achieved thanks to the strategy of utilizing biodiesel for domestic motor vehicles.

"The mandatory 30 percent biodiesel (B30) program which has been running since January 2020 has provided many benefits for budget savings," he said during a virtual press statement, Thursday, January 7.

Arifin added that maintaining the posture of the state budget is quite necessary during a pandemic. This is because the budget can be reallocated to other sectors to accelerate the handling of COVID-19 nationally.

"The Rp38 trillion savings in budget was due to the market absorbing 8.46 million kilo liters of biodiesel products last year," he said.

To note, the realization of the use of biodiesel every year always shows an increasing graph. For example, in 2019 it was recorded that the absorption of this environmentally friendly fuel reached 6.39 million kilo liters. Then in 2018 and 2017 as many as 3.75 million kilo liters and 2.57 million kilo liters respectively.

As for the 2021 period, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has set a target of spreading up to 9.20 million kilo liters of biodiesel products by the end of next year.

"Using Biodiesel means we help protect the environment. We noted that the level of carbon dioxide in 2020 fell by 64.4 million tonnes or greater than the target of 58 million tonnes, "he said.

"As for 2021, we hope that more and more carbon dioxide levels will decrease with a target of 67 million tons, in line with the increasing use of biodiesel from year to year," concluded Arifin.