JAKNEWS.COM---Vice President Jusuf Kalla said student rallIies against the government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices were only an effort to help the country`s rich people.

"The more the students stage protest rallies against the plan, the more they are helping the rich people," the vice president said at the commissioning of Recapital Buidling here on Saturday.

Kala pointed out that the government had so far spent around Rp300 trillion on fuel oil subsidy but it was mostly enjoyed by the rich.

Therefore, the vice president said, the government was trying to improve the way in which direct cash assistance (BLT) for the poor to compensate them for the fuel oil price hikes was to be distributed.

"Who actually uses subsidized fuel oil? Eighty percent of the people who use subsidized fuel oil belong to the rich. If the fuel oil prices are not raised, the rich people will continue to enjoy the subsidy," Kalla said.

Asked when the government would announce the fuel oil price hikes, the vice president said, "I think it will be soon. Maybe at the end of this month."

Meanwhile, hundreds of poor people staged a protest rally against the government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices outside Jusuf Kalla`s private residence in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Saturday.

The protesters said if the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla insisted on raising the fuel oil prices, it would increase the misery of the poor people in the country.

Therefore, they urged the government to cancel its plan.

Guarded tightly by police, the protesters then marched to the state oil company PT Pertamina`s marketing office on Jalan Garuda , about 500 meters from Kalla`s residence, to convey the same demand.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of students who called themselves South Sulawesi Deliberation Students Movement staged a similar protest rally at the Pertamina office on Jalan Garuda.

Coordinator of the rally, Muhammad Rain, said the government would only add to the affliction of the poor people if it raised the domestic fuel oil prices.
 

nANT/JAK01