There has been fuel scarcity in some areas of Indonesia recently, including in my city, Cianjur. I believe this phenomenon is due to the extremely high price of Pertamax, resulting in an increase of demands of funded-gasoline. In addition, the government should evaluate its policy to prevent this situation from happening again in the future.
The gas shortage has been reported for the past few weeks. This situation takes place since Pertamina has raised the price of unfunded gasoline in June 2026, leading to a shift in customers' habits in purchasing gasoline. The wide gap of price between Pertamax and Pertalite leaves low- and middle-class citizens no choice but to choose the latter for their vehicles, as shown by the longer lines at gas stations for the past few months. This situation stopped for the last few weeks when gasoline was scarce at last. For instance, this morning I found out that there was an unusually empty line at a gas station near my home, which was apparently because Pertalite had not been delivered yet.
One of the solutions that the government can take is to re-evaluate its decision to change the gasoline price. Originally, this price change was intended to fund the government's main project, which is MBG (Makan Bergizi Gratis), an unpopular and forced initiative with a lot of flaws. The high need for funding for that particular project causes the government to escalate gasoline prices, which they should have thought through and seen this phenomenon coming.
In conclusion, the fuel scarcity in several areas is believed as the result of the high price of Pertalite. Indonesia government might need to take another look of the decision in increasing it.
Source:
photo by behance.net
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