Indonesia plans to hike prices of fuels this month to control ballooning energy subsidies, news website Bisnis.com reported on Monday, citing comments from the country's energy minister.

The price hike will be complemented with rules on subsidised fuel sales, Energy Minister Arifin Tasrif was quoted as saying.

A spokesperson for the energy ministry did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. State energy firm Pertamina, which sells subsidised fuels, declined to comment, saying fuel price policy is the government's domain.

Indonesia has tripled its energy subsidy budget to 502 trillion rupiah ($34.06 billion) this year to keep prices of subsidised gasoline and diesel and some power tariffs unchanged amid rising global energy prices.

Last week, finance ministry officials said that amount may not be sufficient as consumption of subsidised fuel has nearly reached the quota for the whole year.

President Joko Widodo, in recent public appearances, has mentioned this year's energy subsidy allocation is too large, but has not referred to any plan to hike fuel prices.

($1 = 14,740.0000 rupiah) (Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Bernadette Christina Munthe Editing by John Geddie and Mark Potter)


Reuters