Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State oil and gas company Pertamina gave the assurance on Friday that it would not raise the prices of non-subsidized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) this year despite losses in the sales of the fuel.
The decision not to raise the prices of non-subsidized LPG in 12-kg and 50-kg cylinders was aimed at fulfilling the government`s wish, Pertamina spokesman M Harun said.
"The government is worried that if the LPG prices are raised the increase will push up inflation rate. If that is the case we will postpone our plan to raise the LPG prices," he said.
As the prices of non-subsidized LPG were not raised Pertamina was expected to suffer an estimated Rp3.6 trillion from the sales of LPG in 12-kg and 50-kg cylinders, he said.
The losses were expected to soar to Rp4 trillion if the government asked Pertamina to meet all its requests, he said.
"For instance, demand for LPG will be on the rise during the post-fasting month festivities this year," he said.
Therefore, he added Pertamina would report the losses from the sales of non-subsidized LPG to the government.
The decision to postpone the planned LPG price hike was also because Pertamina posted fairly high profit in the first semester of 2011, he said.
Pertamina booked a net profit of Rp14.79 trillion compared to Rp8.68 trillion in the same period last year.
The company has set the target of its net profit for 2011 at a range of Rp17 trillion to Rp20 trillion compared to its net profit of Rp16.8 trillion last year.
Pertamina had originally planned to raise the price of LPG in 50-kg cylinders by 10 percent at the end of June 2011 and later the price of LPG in 12-kg cylinders.
But the company decided to postpone the planned LPG price hike in July 2011 due to the absence of government approval.
The losses from the sales of non-subsidized LPG were because the selling prices of the commodity were lower than their economic prices.
