Jakarta – Lawmaker Rieke Diah Pitaloka warned President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Sunday not to be too enthusiastic with the recently passed 2012 Revised State Budget, especially when it comes to increasing subsidized fuel prices.

The reason for this, she said, is that Article 7 Clause 6a of the revised budget could potentially be considered unconstitutional. Also considered unconstitutional is the fact that the prolonged voting on Friday evening into early hours of Saturday violated procedure at the House of Representatives.

"What the House did on Saturday was against procedure. It unconstitutionally went against the 1945 Constitution because it went against Constitutional Court (MK) rulings," Rieke said as reported by kompas.com.

Article 7 Clause 6a allows the government to increase the price of subsidized fuels if Indonesian Crude Prices (ICP) increase 15 percent within the past six months.

"This article allows market forces to manipulate resources and play with the lives of people. It goes against Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution," Rieke said.

Article 33 Clause 2 of the 1945 Constitution stipulates that production sectors which are important for the state and dominate the public's interests are controlled by the state while Clause 3 says that all natural resources to be controlled by the state and be used for the people's welfare.

Rieke added that the Constitutional Court had dropped an article at the Oil and Gas Law which allows the use of market forces in determining subsidized fuel prices as being unconstitutional. Therefore, she said, it is possible that the 2012 revised state budget could be cancelled.

"The original Article 7 Clause 6 stipulates that the government will not increase subsidized fuel prices so there should have been no voting on changes on subsidized fuel prices," she said. "This means that the House violated the law." (png)