Jakarta – A legislator at the House of Representatives Commission XI on economy, banking and finance has urged the government to impose a higher levy on alcoholic beverages.

Nusron Wahid from the Golkar Party said as quoted by kontan.co.id on Friday that as of now, the levy on alcoholic beverages was much lower than that on cigarettes and tobacco.

"Alcohol clearly tarnishes the morale of the nation but it is protected by the government," Nusron said.

Nusron said that the government only raised the levy on alcoholic beverages once every four years, while the levy on cigarettes was consistently raised by 8.5 percent annually.

In addition, Nusron said that while the government had a clear policy on cigarette levy, there was no blueprint on how to monitor the levy on alcoholic beverages in the distribution chain.

Separately, Finance Ministry's Fiscal Policy Interim Head Bambang Brodjonegoro said that Nusron's input would be considered. "There is still room to raise the levy on alcoholic beverages," Bambang said.