Target Targeted By Sri Mulyani! This Is The Direction Of The Government's Subsidy Policy In The Midst Of Skyrocketing Prices

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Pertamina)

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani emphasized that the policy of providing subsidies for various crucial goods would still continue even though they were faced with an increase in the budget burden.

According to the Minister of Finance, this is a form of state presence to protect citizens, especially for the poor.

"We will continue to exercise, as long as the administrative price does not change, the potential for subsidies will increase," he said when giving an official statement online on Wednesday morning, April 13.

According to the Minister of Finance's notes, the increase in the price of a number of important world commodities such as oil, gas and minerals has an influence on the formation of domestic prices. For this reason, the government is said to have prepared two schemes.

First, the APBN tries to contain the pressure of price fluctuations so that they do not have too much influence on national prices.

"Steps to balance the pressure experienced by all countries to protect the public, but at the same time the state budget remains credible," he said.

The second is to adjust the selling price accompanied by providing a number of assistance to the community as part of the compensation.

"Various factors will determine strategic steps, up to an increase in pass through with some compensation for social assistance to reduce pressure," he said.

The Minister of Finance himself did not provide certainty about the amount of the budget allocation for subsidies this year.

However, VOI noted that the Working Committee (Panja) of the DPR RI Budget Agency approved an energy subsidy of Rp. 134.02 trillion proposed by the government in the 2022 RAPBN.

The energy subsidies consist of subsidies for certain types of fuel and 3 kg LPG in the amount of Rp. 77.54 trillion. While the other Rp56.47 billion is electricity subsidies.

Meanwhile, until February 2022 the value of energy subsidies reached Rp. 21.7 trillion which was distributed in the form of fuel, LPG and electricity.

In detail, the realization of the use of subsidized fuel until January 2022 is 1.39 million kilo liters, growing from 2021 which was recorded at 1.18 million kilo liters. Meanwhile, subsidized 3 Kg LPG is 632.7 million Kg in 2022 from the previous 603.2 million Kg. Then, electricity was said to have been enjoyed by 38.2 million customers in the first month of this year compared to 37.2 customers in the same period in 2021.