REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DEPOK -- The government has been advised to raise subsidized fuel oil prices at the beginning of 2015 after preparing the necessary policy instruments.

"It is not effective for the government to increase subsidized fuel prices now because the fiscal year is about to end. It is good for the government to plan the increase early in 2015 and allow its economic viability to be achieved in 2016," Rizal E. Halim, a researcher of the Economic Faculty of the University of Indonesia, stated here on Monday (17/11).

He emphasized that the public should firstly be made aware of the plan to increase subsidized fuel oil prices as there were about 29 million poor people, and another 70 million were on the brink of poverty.

These groups of people are highly vulnerable to the variations in the prices of products.

"After all, political reality still shows uncertainties, which create a trap where parties hamper each other," he pointed out.

The researcher emphasized that the government should understand the real context and substance of the energy subsidy reforms as a political commitment, rather than considering it as a political commodity, for the interest of the nation.

Rizal stressed that raising the fuel oil prices now is not the right step as just two months are left before the end of the fiscal year, and currently, the political and social realities are not supporting it. He further pointed out that the world crude prices are also on a downward trend.

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