Jakarta. Indonesia can save up to a whopping Rp 50 trillion (around $3 billion) annually if the country makes use of artificial intelligence or AI to make sure that the fuel subsidy is going to the right people, according to senior minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

“We can save Rp 40 trillion, or even Rp 50 trillion a year,” Luhut said at the new capital Nusantara over the weekend, as reported by state-run news agency Antara.

Luhut is nudging the state-run oil and gas firm Pertamina to make use of AI for better fuel subsidy distribution. He added: “So people that don’t deserve [to get fuel subsidy] should not earn them.”

The minister then talked about how the government had made use of technology to save money. The government’s e-catalog, namely its online public procurement scheme, has saved the country up to Rp 3,000 trillion. The government is now relying on a digital system called Simbara to keep an eye on the coal sector. The system also helps the government to make sure that businesses in this sector are paying their taxes, thus giving a boost to the state revenue.

“All these technologies have helped us become highly efficient,” Luhut said.

Pertamina’s president director Nicke Widyawati claimed that the company had used AI to manage its businesses. “We have begun using AI so we can process and analyze data faster, and this can lead to more accurate decision-making,” Nicke said. 

Pertamina processes around 15 million data related to fuel subsidy transactions every day, according to the company. 

Pertamina’s senior vice president for integrated enterprise data and command center Ignatius Sigit Pratopo said that the use of the “exception signal AI” for the company’s transactions had led to significant cost avoidance. The technology has also helped prevent the unfair distribution of fuel subsidies.

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