Jakarta – Following Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) deputy chairman Ma'ruf Amien's statement on Monday that it is a sin for private car owners to buy subsidized fuel as it violates the rights of poor people, the council will deliberate on whether or not to issue a fatwa on the matter.
"We have yet to decide when the evaluation will take place because [the statement] is just discourse," MUI chairman Amidhan Shaberah said on Wednesday. The evaluation is necessary before the MUI issues a fatwa designating buying subsidized fuel as halal or haram based on Islamic law.
Amidhan said the MUI would proceed with its evaluation if there were public requests and if the Koran did not regulate the issue. "A fatwa commission will accept requests for further discussion based on Islamic law. Afterwards, we will issue the fatwa," he added.
He said that an edict would normally need between one and six months of debate before being officially issued.
According to Amidhan, Ma'ruf was giving his personal opinion when invited by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh to discuss the issue. "[The statement] related to his rights as a cleric. [Ma'ruf] said both the government and the House of Representatives had allocated a sum of money to subsidize the fuel," Amidhan said.
Ma'ruf said that if rich people continued to consume subsidized fuel then they would violate poor people's rights, as the subsidy could be used to provide education and health care to the poor.
He added that the rising price of non-subsidized fuel should not be an excuse for rich people to switch to subsidized fuel. "We should limit the use of fuel instead of switching to subsidized fuel," he said as quoted by Antara news agency.
However, the government plans to increase the quota for subsidized fuel. Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said that as global oil prices surged and as non-subsidized gasoline prices at state-owned oil company PT Pertamina doubled the price of its subsidized Premium brand, the consumption of subsidized fuel had increased more than expected.
In this year's first quarter, subsidized fuel consumption comprised 9.7 million kiloliters of the 38.6 million kiloliters allocated in the 2011 state budget, up 7 percent from the same period last year.
However, Deputy Finance Minister Anny Ratnawati said on Tuesday that the limitation policy on subsidized fuel "should be implemented to prevent an increase in the subsidy".
Antara quoted her as saying that the ministry had asked the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry to coordinate implementing the policy in the second semester of this year at the latest.
Anny said if the policy was implemented this year, the budget deficit could be maintained at 2.1 percent. "We will ask the [Energy Ministry] to implement the limitation, because otherwise it will have implications for the increase in fuel, oil and electricity subsidies," she said.
Refrison Baswir, an economist from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said Ma'ruf's statement was personal and had nothing to do with the MUI.
"However, we should be aware that some MUI members may try to enter territory that does not belong to them," he said. He added that by involving the MUI in its policy making, the government would be deemed as exaggerating the issue. (fem)