TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati explained that the government's move, through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), which asked the business entity to seek approval before raising the price of general fuel, in accordance with the rules.

"What the Minister of ESDM did is to implement the rules," said Sri Mulyani on Wednesday, April 11, 2018.

Last week, the Ministry of ESDM announced that the obligation of business entities to seek approval from the government if they wanted to raise the price of the general or non-subsidized fuel.

The government wants to maintain the level of inflation and people's purchasing power, amid the trend of world oil prices, which continue to rise and potentially push the general price of fuel to rise.

But the decision was criticized and feared it would disrupt the investment climate in the national downstream oil and gas sector.

Director of Retail from Shell Indonesia Wahyu Indrawanto, for example, said that selling general fuel in accordance with the economic price is very basic to maintain the investment climate and business continuity in the field of distribution of general fuel types.

Sri Mulyani said that the policy was made by considering the interests of business entities and communities, as regulated in Presidential Regulation No. 191 of 2014 on Fuel Operations, specially on the retail level.

"From the investor side, the supplies and business assurance are maintained and on the other hand, the public interest is also guaranteed," Sri Mulyani said.

DEWI NURITA