AGO To Increase Cooking Oil Export Cases For Investigation

JAKARTA - Head of the Attorney General's Office for Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum Kejagung) Ketut Sumedana said his party would increase the investigation into the case of granting cooking oil export facilities to investigations in early April.

"The Investigative Team will immediately take a stand to escalate this case to the investigation process in early April 2022," said Ketut Sumedana, quoted by Antara, Friday, March 25.

He explained, after the scarcity of cooking oil occurred, the government imposed restrictions on exports of CPO and its derivatives by issuing the Decree of the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia Number 129 of 2022 dated February 10, 2022, concerning Determination of Amounts for Distribution of Domestic Needs (DMO) and Domestic Sales Prices (DPO).

With this regulation, said Ketut Sumedana, exporters of CPO and its derivatives to obtain export approval must carry out the distribution obligations for domestic needs by attaching proof of contracts with distributors, purchase orders, delivery orders, and tax invoices.

"To appoint several companies to be given cooking oil export facilities for 2021-2022," he said.

Based on the decision of the Director-General of Domestic Trade Number 35 of 2022 dated March 4, 2022, it is suspected that several companies that obtained the cooking oil export facility in 2021-2022 were abusing and not carrying out the requirements as specified.

"Among other things, the amount facilitated for domestic needs (DMO) is 20 percent to 30 percent," he said.

These actions have the potential to cause losses to the state and the country's economy. This then became the basis for consideration for the Investigating Team to determine their attitude and raise the investigation of the case of granting cooking oil export facilities to the investigation stage.