VIVAnews - The Law on Electricity which was legalized on September 8, 2009, enabled regional governments and private institutions to supply electricity, considering the fact that currently 40 percent of Indonesians have not received electricity supply.
Director of Finance of State Electricity Company (PLN) Setio Anggora Dewo said the chance given to both local officials and private companies was to encourage autonomy in handling the electricity shortage.
“Using telecommunication state company as an analogy, [it was difficult to have phone connection] ten to fifteen years ago. Today, installing a phone connection is easy,” Dewo said on Saturday, September 12.
According to him, if they have to wait for funds availability in PLN to build infrastructures, it would take a long time.
“Therefore, for the healthy companies, please independently supply your own electricity and accumulate the revenue,” he said.
Dewo also revealed that PLN’s balance sheet is closely related to the structure of State Budget (APBN) because the subsidy was allocated in APBN. There was a connection between the subsidy, transmission building and foreign loans.
“Nowadays, only one out of two people have electricity. The availability ratio is 1:60,” he said.
He also said the subsidy plus tariff has not compensated for the investment because it was still in the operational level.
Meanwhile, electricity observer Fabby Tumiwa assumed the Law on Electricity is quite efficient. He was only worried about the possibility of efficiency which is very costly. The implication would be high amount of subsidy.
The Law on Electricity states there will be subsidy from regional governments. “If I’m not sure of local governments, how else would I get the funds?” Tumiwa said.
If the governments face problems in financing, the goal of getting affordable electricity would be only a dream.
Tumiwa also said the law also governs business area allocation.
”That means the top-skilled economy could be influenced. The only thing that would emerge is monopoly by the regions,” he said. He doubted that the area allocation would relive the competition climate.
For example, he mentioned about production costs in Java, which are higher than in Papua that has made the setting of regional tariff pointless.
He suspected private electricity suppliers would ask for a bigger margin. They would also calculate the investment and production cost.
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Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
