The Indonesian parliament has approved the Government’s proposal of increasing the electricity price from July 1 in order to reduce the burden on the budget for energy use each year.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik said that the price will increase by 5-11 percent every two months till the end of 2014. Ultimately, it will go up 34.7 percent for industries and 34 percent for households.

The move will affect Government offices, companies and households, but can save the Government 8.5 trillion Rp (720 million USD) in energy subsidies this year, Wacik stated.

He added that the increased price will also help save energy as consumers have to consider carefully before using their power.-VNA