Assessing Legal Certainty for Energy Accessibility in the Indonesian One Price Fuel Program through the Principle of Clarity of Purpose
Bonifasius Destian Recky Husodo, Muhammad Alrasyid Tamano
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
The Indonesian One Price Fuel Program (OPFP) was introduced to reduce fuel price disparities and improve access to subsidized and assigned fuel in disadvantaged, frontier, and outermost regions in Indonesia. However, persistent distribution problems and reliance on informal fuel markets raise questions about whether the legal framework governing the program provides sufficient certainty to support energy accessibility. This article assesses the regulation of the OPFP through the principle of clarity of purpose under Article 5 of Indonesian Law No. 12 of 2011 on Law-Making, as amended. Using doctrinal legal research, the article applies an intra-legal assessment grounded in Indonesian positive law, particularly the clarity of purpose principle and the constitutional orientation of energy governance under Articles 33(2) and 33(3) of the Indonesian 1945 Constitution. The analysis shows that the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) Regulation No. 36 of 2016 is generally aligned with the principle of clarity of purpose. Its objective is identifiable, connected to the public interest in energy accessibility, and designed to respond to the regulatory problem of unequal fuel access and distribution disparities in targeted regions. Nevertheless, the article does not claim to provide a complete assessment of legal certainty, as it focuses only on a single principle of good law-making. Rather, it concludes that the OPFP regulation provides sufficient clarity of purpose to support legal certainty regarding energy accessibility, while further assessment under other good law-making principles remains necessary
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