Jokowi Agrees with Electricity Price Hike, Fuel Control
16 August 2014 15:54 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Member of Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla campaign team, Eva Kusuma Sundari, revealed that the president-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has agreed with President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono’s policies to increase electricity price and to cut fuel subsidy. According to Eva, Jokowi considered this as a strategy to restore the country’s fiscal condition.
“Jokowi’s programs need fund allocation taken from subsidies of both sectors,” Eva told Tempo on Friday, August 15, 2014.
Eva said Jokowi wanted to reallocate the subsidy to other programs that would benefit the people directly. In Jokowi’s view, the electricity and fuel subsidies only benefited business owners. The people, as the target, had enjoyed small portion of the subsidies.
“The subsidy will be reallocated to programs targeting lower middle class people, including farmers and fisherman,” Eva said.
Earlier, Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Agus Martowardojo said that BI had anticipated the impacts of electricity and LPG prices hike on the inflation rate in 2014. He confirmed that the gas price hike would increase the inflation rate.
YOLANDA RYAN ARMINDYA
