Sluggish Management Of Cooking Oil, Trade Minister Lutfi Rebuked By Golkar Legislator: People Will Not Suffer If They Respond From The Beginning

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI of the DPR RI from the Golkar Party faction I Gede Sumarjaya "Demer" Linggih paid special attention to the performance of the Minister of Trade M. Lutfi who was considered not optimal in dealing with fluctuations in cooking oil prices.

According to Demer, all elements in the Ministry of Trade need to improve supervision and conduct market operations so that the affordable cooking oil price program for the community can be implemented properly.

Demer also asked the Ministry of Trade to take measures to prevent the hoarding of commodities by irresponsible persons, as well as to monitor the supply chain of cooking oil in a number of areas.

"The Minister of Trade must be able to ensure the availability of cooking oil in the market," he said in a written statement, Monday, February 7.

According to him, Trade Minister Lutfi must be able to oversee and implement the Highest Retail Price Regulation (HET) with a maximum of Rp. 14,000 per liter.

“This is what Trade Minister Lutfi really has to do to the fullest. This is in the interest of the people," he said.

In addition to overseeing the implementation of the HET, the Ministry of Trade must also be able to carry out domestic market obligation and domestic price obligation programs in order to maintain the stability of cooking oil prices. he said, apart from being expensive, the availability of cooking oil was getting less and less, even rare in some areas.

This condition finally made cooking oil scarce again, because in the community panic buying began to appear.

“It is natural for them to be afraid that cooking oil will be more expensive and harder to obtain, because this is one of the basic needs of the community. Especially for MSME actors, who are certainly at a loss because of the high cost and scarcity of cooking oil," he explained.

Demer deeply regrets that the issue of cooking oil prices continues and is becoming increasingly difficult to control, due to the slow pace of the Minister of Trade in dealing with this issue.

"If the Trade Minister could be more responsive in dealing with this problem from the start, I think this problem can be resolved more quickly and there is no need to make people miserable any longer," he said.

Demer also did not deny that there were allegations of missing goods when the government started carrying out large-scale market operations. He suspected it was done by certain parties. Therefore, he asked the Minister of Trade to eradicate the cooking oil cartels that are making people miserable.

"It is time for this cooking oil cartel to be eradicated," added Demer.

If this problem drags on, Demer estimates that this condition will be able to affect the economic recovery efforts that have been very well carried out by the government during the pandemic.