The government has warned recalcitrant gas stations that it will shut them down or revoke their operational permits, including those that sell overpriced gasoline or trick their customers with deceptive gas meters. The government will do this to ensure the proper implementation of its one-price fuel policy.
Downstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency (BPH Migas) plans to team up with the Trade Ministry’s metrology directorate, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministrys Directorate General of Oil and Gas and-the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department to run so called compliance operations targeting fuel distribution agents nationwide.
BPH Migas committee member Muhammad Ibnu Fajar said his team would inspect gas stations to check the validity of their operation permits, the dispenser volume, the gas meter, as well as product specifications and prices.
“We need to undertake the compliance operations to monitor the implementation of the oneprice fuel policy among fuel agents so that there are no violations, including in the prices set for customers,” Ibnu said Thursday
In the first phase, the agency will conduct field inspections at four or five gas stations in Greater Jakarta, which will be selected through a random sampling method.
Then, it will expand its coverage across the country in 2018 with the target of inspecting at least six random gas stations per month out of a total 7,680 stations nationwide. The agency will also take into account public complaints filed in determining which stations are targeted.
As mandated by the government, state-owned energy giant Pertamina will establish by 2019 fuel distribution agents in 150 locations included in the so-called "3T regions", referring to the countryfs frontier, outermost and ‘remote regions.
ln this way, Pertamina hopes it can keep the prices of some fuel types at the same level in those locations, including Premium gasoline with a research octane number (RON) of 88 at Rp 6,450 (48 US cents) per liter and subsidized Solar diesel at Rp 5,150-per liter.
“For recalcitrant gas stations, we can revoke their permits, close them down or even take legal action against them,” Ibnu said.
If a gas station is proven to use inaccurate gas meters, resulting in lower-than-expected gasoline volumes received by customers, the station’s operator can be sentenced to a year in prison or slapped with a Rp 1 million fine, as stipulated in the 1981 Legal Metrology Law.
Moreover, if a gas station misuses the distribution of subsidized fuel, the operator can be sentenced to six years in prison or fined Rp 60 billion, as stated in the 2001 Oil and Gas Law, Mean-while, the misuse of non-subsidized fuel could lead to four years in prison or a Rp 40 billion fine.
As of today, Pertamina has only been able to implement the policy in 25 locations, less than half the 54 targeted locations for this year, following some problems related to permit issuance and development progress at gas stations in remote regions.
“We have three more months to go. Pertamina will work hard to expedite the implementation of the policy at the 54 locations by the end of the year,” Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry oil and gas director general Ego Syahrial said.
Pertamina estimates that it will have to spend Rp 800 billion this year alone and Rp 5 trillion by 2019 to fully realize the one-price fuel policy. This comes amid the company’s mounting financial burdens.
As the government has maintained the prices of Premium and Solar at the same level since April 2016, Pertamina has had to bear the burden when the prices fall below their real economic value.
Jakarta Post, Page-13, Friday, October 6, 2017
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