TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chairman of the Indonesian Consumer's Foundation (YLKI) Tulus Abadi has estimated that consumer protection in 2018 will not change much or might even lessen.

"It is because 2018 is the year of politics (in Indonesia). Major political infrastructure will focus on building image or political interests in the run-up to the simultaneous regional head elections or presidential elections in 2019," Abadi noted in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The YLKI chairman opined that the policies adopted in 2018 will be more of a camouflage. He added that there will be more policies that politicize populist public policies.

"It could be that in 2018, the state (the government) will act in favor of the people by not raising prices or tariffs of public commodities, but that condition will reverse after the 2019 presidential election," he remarked.

Abadi alleged that after the 2019 presidential election, the state will boost the economy by raising tariffs and prices on basic electricity and fuel oil and also removing the subsidy on the three-kilogram LPG gas cylinders.

Moreover, the country currently appears overwhelmed in dealing with the energy needs of people from the lower middle-class group by offering the three-kilogram LPG gas cylinders.

"Over the past year, distribution of the three-kilogram subsidized gas has been increasingly affected, so people from the lower middle-class group have to queue up for hours on end to get the more expensive one," he pointed out.

ANTARA