Jakarta – The government’s policy to subsidise electric vehicles has the potential to be misdirected and biassed, according to members of parliament. They said incentives in the form of subsidies provided by the government for electric vehicles, to reduce the price, have now backfired and are criticised by various parties.
“Without further investigation, the public can also feel the interests of certain parties behind this policy. That way the policy of subsidising the purchase of electric vehicles can arouse public suspicion,” said Mulyanto, Member of Commission VII of the Indonesian parliament, adding that it is known that one of the government officials is currently also the Chairman of the Electric Vehicle Manufacturers Association.
He said the subsidy is inappropriate, since recipients are rich people. Mulyanto believes that this policy will certainly cause dangerous social jealousy. Moreover, the amount of subsidy to be given is quite large, namely IDR 70 million/unit for the purchase of electric cars and IDR 7 million/unit for the purchase of electric motors.
“If the purpose of the subsidy is to increase the use of electric vehicles in order to reduce carbon emissions, it is clearly wrong. Because the fact is that the energy source for electric vehicles is still taken from coal-fired power plants,” said Mulyanto, adding that the level of carbon emissions is still high so that the use of electric vehicles is just moving the source of carbon pollution from vehicles to power plants.
According to him, subsidies should be given to public transportation electric vehicles so that more people can enjoy them. In addition, this subsidy can also reduce the use of private vehicles so that it can have an impact on reducing the level of congestion on several roads.
So far, two electric car manufacturers have received subsidies, namely Hyundai and Wuling. However, the government opens up opportunities for other manufacturers to receive subsidies. Currently there are 13 brands of electric motorcycles receiving subsidies. (Hartatik)
Banner photo: Pertamina NRE’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dannif Danusaputro listens to an online motorcycle taxi driver’s explaining how to charge an electric motor battery during the launch of the swapping station at the Green Energy Station SPBU Denpasar. (Photo: Hartatik)
