No Electricity Tariff Hike, Govt Urges PLN to Resolve Complaints

MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES

REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

PRESS RELEASE

NUMBER: 201.Pers/04/SJI/2020

Date: 9 June 2020

No Electricity Tariff Hike, Govt Urges PLN to Resolve Complaints

The government urges PT PLN (Pesero) to explain to the public that there is no electricity tariff hike. The electricity tariff has not been raised since 2017 and it won't be until September 2020. This issue must be highlighted in response to a public outcry due to the skyrocketing electricity bill in June 2020.

"PLN must resolve these complaints by involving Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) and Ombudsman of Republic of Indonesia," said Director of Electricity Business Fostering of Ministry of EMR, Hendra Iswahyudi, in a meeting discussing the mechanism to read kWh meter during the COVID-19 pandemic which was held online on Friday (5/6/2020). The meeting was joined by Head of YLKI Tulus Abadi, PLN's SEVP of Business and Customer Service Yuddy Setyo Wicaksono, plus officials from DG Electricity and PT PLN (Persero).

Ministry of EMR, explained Hendra, has confirmed that the electricity tariff of 1 July-30 September 2020 will not be increased, or the rates are the same with those applied since 2017. Therefore, PLN is urged to explain to the public the electricity tariff is unchanged and there are no cross-subsidies from upper-class customers to lower-class customers as rumored.

"The support in the form of discounted electricity bill for the underprivileged is taken from the State Budget, there are no cross-subsidies from upper-class customers to lower-class customers," said Hendra.

Hendra also said that a higher electricity bill in June 2020 was generally caused by accumulated kWh because the power bill in April 2020 used an average of electricity usage in 3 months. Usage has also increased because of the stay-at-home activities.

Electricity Bill Relief Scheme

PLN has prepared a calculation scheme to protect post-paid customers whose electricity bills shoot up in June, therefore, May 2020 bills can only be accessed on 6 June 2020.

"Under the scheme, customers whose June bills shoot up by a minimum of 20% compared to May bill because billing uses an average in the last three months, the surge will have to be paid by 40%, and the remainder will be split in the next 3 months," said PLN's SEVP of Business and Customer Service, Yuddy Setyo Wicaksono.

According to Tulus Abadi, the scheme must be informed as clearly as possible so that the public won't misunderstand. He believes that detailed and personalized explanation to PLN customers is necessary so that customers are familiar with the mechanism. Communications can be made via social media, contact center, and PLN's Whatsapp application.

"Media briefing is necessary so that the public understand in detail," said Tulus.

PLN is committed to resolving the complaints by maximizing Call Center 123 and publication through mass media and social media. The state utility company hopes these service breakthroughs can give the public more clarity.

Responding to the various complaints and inputs from the public, PT PLN (Persero) through its Senior Executive Vice President of Business & Customer Service, Yuddy Setyo Wicaksono, delivered the explanation at a Business Dialog Forum titled "Your Electricity Bill Soar during the Pandemic? Let's Ask PLN!" on Monday (8/6/2020). The dialog forum was moderated by a senior journalist from Bisnis Indonesia newspaper, Hery Trianto. The dialog is in line with the results of the meeting with DG Electricity and Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) on Friday (5/6/2020).

Yuddy dismissed the rumor circulating in the public that PLN increased electricity tariff. According to Yuddy, PLN cannot increase electricity tariff because this policy must be decided by the government and must receive approval from the House (DPR).

He admitted that some customers experienced anomalies in tariff rise, but these were because no kWh meter reading staff were assigned during the early months of the Large Scale Social Restriction (PSBB). Yuddy said the decision to charge April electricity bill using the average usage from the last three months was to obey the PSBB and support the government's program to break Covid-19 chain.

Yuddy said that soaring electricity bills were caused by the many activities carried out at home in relation to the Work From Home (WFH) policy. The spike in household electricity bills had been triggered by increasing usage of electricity, particularly in May as Ramadan approached.

In terms of bill spike in June, bill calculation is made in real life (meter reading staffs should go to houses) plus excess electricity bills in April and May. These have made electricity bill of June shoot up compared to the previous months. In terms of complaints about the bill spike, Yuddy added that PLN had a Complaint Center and Contact Center 123.

"If you ask to PLN 123, we have the data for each customer ID, history, when the record was taken, we have the photos, and we can explain everything," he explained.

Yuddy said as many as 4.3 million of PLN customers experienced electricity hike of 20% during May. He further asserted that there were no cross-subsidies in electricity billing, let alone tariff increase; all data are recorded in the system based on the usage.

PLN is currently committed to improving bill recording mechanism, for example through the PLN Mobile application downloadable from the Play Store. Yuddy hoped more and more customers would access the PLN Mobile so as to facilitate PLN in providing its services to the public.

"PLN will continue to provide best service and simplicity to our customers," he concluded. (IY)

Head of Bureau of Communication, Public Information Services, and Cooperation

Agung Pribadi (08112213555)

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