Golkar Nods to Fuel Subsidy Cut

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Ahmadi Noor Supit, member of the Functional Group (Golkar) Faction at the House of Repesentatives, said his party supported fuel subsidy cut to promote healthier State Budget.

Ahmadi agreed that the fuel subsidy should be transferred to people to improve the development of infrastructures, agriculture and poverty alleviation.

“Fuel subsidy should be evaluated because it wouldn’t reach poor people,” Ahmadi told Tempo on Saturday, August 23, 2014.

Ahmadi predicted that people would inevitably reject the idea of fuel subsidy cut. However, the rejection can be eased by transparency. In addition, people should be benefited by the subsidy transfer.

“About 60 percent of infrastructures in regencies have been totally damaged. Subsidy transfer can be used to fix these,” Ahmadi said.

According to Ahmadi, the subsidy transfer can be realized gradually. For the 2015 Budget, Ahmadi said, the government had proposed that as much as 48 million kiloliters of fuel would be subsidized.

“If the fuel price was increased by Rp2,000, about Rp96 trillion (US$8 billion) can be allocated for other [programs],” Ahmadi said.

Ahmadi said that his party has yet issued any official instruction to discuss the revision of 2015 State Budget Draft with the president-elect Joko widodo’s economic team. However, he admitted that they would welcome the invitation for the sake of the people.

Ahmadi added that his party and the Red-And-White Coalition would serve as the balancing force instead of the opposition against the government.

TRI ARTINING PUTRI