Reduction of Subsidized Fuel

The government is planning to reduce the sales of Subsidized Fuel starting 1 January 2011.

For which purpose, state owned petroleum company Pertamina will only sell subsidized fuel i.e Premium to public transportation.

Whereas, owners of private vehicles should use the more expensive non-subsidized fuel i.e. Pertamax.

However, Pertamina is currently not ready to supply enough Pertamax, therefore it must import the fuel.
 
Kompas reported that currently, Pertamina can only produce 200,000 kiloliters of Pertamax per day, which is not enough to meet the highly increasing domestic need.

Considering the above, I felt that the price differences between Premium and Pertamax, and Pertamina's inability to supply enough Pertamax, would create the existence of black market for the Subsidized Fuel.
Therefore, I hope that the government would carefully reconsider its decision.

Photo :  Courtesy of Kompas.

The Deadly Gas Cylinders

In an effort to minimize subsidy for imported fuels, in 2006 the government converted the use of Kerosene into Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) distributed in 3-Kg. Gas Cylinders .

Since then, every day the news media have been reporting about so many people who died and/or wounded because of the explosions of the very low quality Gas Cylinders. In response to people's protests, some members of the House of Representatives have asked the government to withdraw all Gas Cylinders from circulation.

The most shocking thing is that in spite of the frequent explosions causing many casualties, no one seems to be willing to take responsibility for those explosions. The state-owned petroleum company PT. Pertamina that supplied the Gas and Gas Cylinders, blamed the consumers for not being careful in using the Gas Cylinder, its Hose and Regulator.

Only after the President, Vice President and some Cabinet Ministers commented on this grave matter, PT Pertamina come with a suggestion that LPG consumers should change the Hose and Regulator for the Gas Cylinder they currently used by buying new, better quality and cheaper ones, from Pertamina.

Considering that the 3-kg. Gas Cylinders have exploded, killed and wounded so many people in many parts of Indonesia, I hope that the government would treat this case very important, therefore ask the law enforcement agencies to investigate thoroughly, like they investigated the far less important Sex Video case.
I also hope that PT Pertamina would closely monitor the distribution of Gas Cylinders, so that they would not explode again.   

Related media reports :
- Converted to Death (Tempo) 
- Polisi Selidiki Penyebab Ledakan Gas 3 Kg (Inilah)
- 14 Produsen Selang Tabung Gas 3 Kg Dievaluasi (PosKota)
- DPR: Tarik Semua Tabung Gas 3 Kg. (VivaNews)