TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The subsidized fuel scarcity in a number of regions allegedly stems from the government's fuel control policy. However, analysts said that such policy was a repetition of the previous ones and did not have any significant impact on the issue.
"Energy is a highly strategic commodity, and the demand for it is elastic. Human today cannot live without energy and will continue to buy energy, regardless of the price," Enny Sri Hartati, the executive director at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), told Tempo on Monday, August 25, 2014.
Enny explained when the government enforced the policy without managing the demand and crafting fuel conversion, such policy would recur over time.
"I'm convinced that policy makers had predicted fuel shortage would occur. I'm afraid that the policy was made to respond to the public's demand," Enny said.
According to Enny, the fuel scarcity was intended to provide the government with pretexts to increase the subsidized fuel quota that presently stood at 46 million kiloliters.
"The quota will certainly be increased, and we will never get out of the problem and create a solution," Enny added.
Enny said the policy should be reviewed since the government was without a grand design of energy policy.
Earlier, the government decided to allocate 48 million kiloliters of subsidized fuel for 2014, which was later reduced to 46 million kiloliters in the revised state budget. The revision has sparked requests that the government add the subsidized fuel quota as the current one is deemed insufficient to meet energy demands until the end of the year.
AISHA SHAIDRA
