Indonesia begins issuing stickers for fuel subsidy ban
The Indonesian government has set an August deadline for the issuance of 90,000 stickers for government cars which will be banned from buying subsidized fuel in Java and Bali.
Evita Herawati Legowo, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s oil and gas chief, said that the stickers will indicate that the vehicles cannot use subsidized fuels. Some 20,000 stickers have already been distributed for use in government cars in Greater Jakarta. An additional 40,000 is scheduled to be issued towards the end of August.
Legowo said the new regulation also bans mining and plantation vehicles from using subsidized fuel. The ban for the mining and plantation companies will take effect in September. Implementation of the ban for government and state-owned companies is expected to reduce the country’s annual subsidized fuel consumption by 135,000 kiloliters (KL). The government’s goal is to reduce subsidized fuel use by 425,000 kiloliters a year and it hopes to accomplish this by extending the ban to cover industrial vehicles, including those operated by mining companies and plantations.
Aside from this measure, the government said it will accelerate its oil-fuel-to-gas conversion program, which is expected to decrease subsidized fuel consumption this year by 8,000 kiloliters. (June 9, 2012)