Govt Plan To Limit Fuel Consumption

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo has praised the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's plan to limit the use of subsidized fuels beginning in late May.

"The plan is part of the effort to prevent the quota of subsidized fuels from exceeding 40 million kiloliters," he said here Friday.

The limitation of subsidized fuel consumption was necessary, particularly because the government had not raised prices of subsidized fuels and the budget allocations for fuel subsidies in the revised 2012 state budget was set at only Rp137.5 trillion, he said.

"We fear if the discrepancy between the economic price and the subsidized fuel price is huge, subsidized fuel consumption would reach more than 40 million kiloliters," he said.

Further, Bambang Brodjonegoro, acting chief of the fiscal policy board at the Finance Ministry, said subsidized fuels were only intended to be purchased by those entitled to them.(IGT)