House can now summon anybody involved in oil industry, trade : legislator

"It means the House now has the authority to investigate the government`s policies on the management of fuel oils , including its policy of raising the fuel oil prices by 28.7 percent last May," he said.

Through the inquiry, it was hoped the government`s policies on the national oil industry and trade which so far had always tended to be secretive or full of cover-ups could be made transparent and accountable to the public at large, he said.

Bima said he was convinced, if only state oil company Pertamina had been able to increase the country`s petroleum lifting to a level adjusted to the national neeads, Indonesia would not have needed to import crude oil at continuously increasing prices.

"And with domestic oul production equaling the country`s needs, there would have been no need to raise the fuel oil prices. But in reality, efforts to increase petroleum lifting failed or were never made.Domestic crude production even dropped from year to year and as a consequence, high-priced oil continued to be imported creating an increasing burden on the state budget," he said.

Meanwhile, ...