DPR Asks Trade Minister To Immediately Pay Cooking Oil Debt Worth IDR 344 Billion To Retailers

Member of Commission VI DPR Mufti Anam. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI of the House of Representatives, Mufti Anam, asked the Ministry of Trade to immediately complete the process of paying for the price difference or cooking oil to the Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association (Aprindo).

Mufti said this problem was important to solve.

The reason, he said, is that Aprindo has contributed to efforts to stabilize the supply and price of cooking oil in the market during a shortage in 2022.

"Imagine the high price of cooking oil first, it's not even on the market, the hero, Aprindo sir," he said at a meeting of Commission VI of the DPR with the Minister of Trade, Monday, September 4.

For your information, retail entrepreneurs who are members of Aprindo previously implemented the Permendag No.3 policy in 2022.

In this regulation, retail entrepreneurs sell packaged cooking oil for IDR 14,000 per liter in mid-January 2022.

At that time, the capital for buying cooking oil reached Rp. 17,000 per liter.

In the regulation, the difference in cooking oil prices uses a budget from the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPD PKS). However, this claim has not been paid until now.

Currently, Permendag No. 3 of 2022 has been revoked and replaced by Permendag No. 6 of 2022 concerning the Highest Retail Price (HET) of cooking oil.

Mufti said the Ministry of Trade needs to show its integrity in carrying out its obligations based on the rules that have been made previously.

"I can understand that the Minister is very careful, really, good, at the Ministry of Trade to be careful. But this is a big problem, how our nation's integrity is at stake, sir," he said.

Furthermore, Mufti admitted that he was worried that if the debt difference in cooking oil worth Rp. 344 billion was not paid, it would trigger employers' distrust of the government.

"Don't let this not be paid, then suddenly the CPO price goes up, then the cooking oil goes up, they no longer want to be involved in policy matters with the government," he said.

According to Mufti, this Rp344 billion claim can be paid by the government with BPDPKS funds which do have funds from palm oil export levies.

"It is possible to pay Rp. 344 billion not to use state money, it could be with money at BPDPKS. So that BPDPKS money is not only to subsidize biosolars, which in our opinion there is no correlation with people's problems," he said.