Jakarta, ThedailyID — Indonesia plans to restrict Pertalite purchases for households in the top two welfare groups, known as deciles 9 and 10.
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said the government would introduce the restriction gradually. The plan followed his meeting with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia on Tuesday, August 11.
Bahlil acknowledged that subsidized Pertalite has not always reached the people who need it most. Households in deciles 9 and 10 can still access the subsidized fuel.
The government wants to ensure that its hundreds of trillions of rupiah in fuel subsidies reach eligible households.
But what exactly do deciles 9 and 10 mean?
How the Decile System Works
According to the Social Welfare Data and Information Center (Pusdatin Kesos), a decile ranks households based on their relative level of welfare.
Decile 1 represents households with the lowest welfare levels. Meanwhile, decile 10 represents those with the highest welfare levels.
The ranking does not rely solely on household income. Instead, authorities assess several factors to determine a family’s position.
These factors include asset ownership, housing conditions, education, employment and the number of dependents.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) also explained that deciles do not have fixed income thresholds.
For example, BPS Cilegon said 270 households could be divided into 10 groups of 27 households each. The first group would represent the lowest welfare ranking, while the tenth would represent the highest.
This means someone cannot determine their decile simply by looking at their monthly salary.
BPS Cilegon stressed that the ranking uses dozens of variables with different weights. These include housing, demographics, employment, business ownership and health conditions.
Why Decile 10 Can Include Very Different Households
The system can place households with very different economic conditions in the same decile.
A middle-class household earning millions of rupiah a month could fall into decile 10 alongside an extremely wealthy family.
BPS Cilegon said this happens because the number of extremely wealthy households remains very small compared with the overall population.
The contrast within decile 10 therefore reflects the significant economic inequality across Indonesia.
For the government, the decile system will play an important role in determining who should receive subsidized goods such as Pertalite.
However, the planned restrictions on deciles 9 and 10 will still require further implementation details as the government prepares the policy.
