BLT Cooking Oil: Like A Football Match, The Indonesian Government Defeated By Oil Palm Industry Oligarchy Three Goals Without Reply

JAKARTA - President Jokowi on April 1 launched a program to provide direct cash assistance (BLT). The BLT program was launched in response to rising cooking oil prices, which have already weighed heavily on the economy of the lower middle class Indonesians.

“We know that cooking oil prices have risen quite high as a result of the surge in palm oil prices in the international market. To ease the burden on the community, the government will provide cooking oil BLT. The assistance will be given to 20.5 million families who are included in the Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) and Family Hope Program (PKH) lists, as well as 2.5 million street vendors selling fried food," said President Jokowi in a press statement.

"As for the assistance given, Rp. 100,000 per month. The government will provide the assistance for three months at a time, namely April, May and June which will be paid in advance in April 2022 in the amount of IDR 300 thousand. Lastly, I ask the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the TNI, and the National Police to coordinate so that the distribution of this aid will run well and smoothly," Jokowi continued.

In a press release from the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) through KSP Main Expert Abraham Wirotomo, it is hoped that a BLT of IDR 100,000 per month can ease the burden on people affected by the increase in cooking oil prices.

Abraham explained that the recipients of the cooking oil BLT were people who had been registered in the Social Welfare Integrated Data (DTKS) from the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos). DTKS becomes a database that has been synchronized with the Population Identification Number (NIK) and has been verified.

"Thus the distribution of BLT can be right on target, and this is to prevent the potential for duplicate and fictitious data," said Abraham.

Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira believes that BLT assistance is a positive thing, but on the other hand the government still has to solve the problem of managing packaged and bulk cooking oil. Although perhaps what people need more now is a stable and affordable price

According to Bima, the important thing to pay attention to is the accuracy of the recipient's data, especially for fried food traders, this is very important because it is feared that data duplication will not be right on target.

The provision of BLT is seen as a form of government concern, at a time when people's purchasing power decreases. However, BLT does not invalidate the government's obligation to solve problems in the cooking oil distribution chain. These problems result in scarcity and unstable prices.

To address the issue of cooking oil this year alone, the government has issued many policies to stabilize prices and supply. However, even though there is no shortage of cooking oil in some markets, prices are still high. We don't yet know what other policies the government will take after releasing the highest retail price of packaged cooking oil to the market mechanism.

The government currently allocates a budget of Rp6.15 trillion to finance the BLT program for the next three months. And it is likely to swell if market stabilization does not materialize.

The chairman of the DPD RI, AA LaNyalla Mahmud Mattalitti assesses the government's decision to give BLT as a shortcut.

"This is called the palm oil oligarchy winning three times in a row aka a hat trick. First, winning because the world CPO price rose. Second, winning because the government finally revoked the HET for cheap oil. Third, won because the announcement of the cooking oil mafia was canceled and swallowed up by the earth," he said. LaNyalla in a written statement, Tuesday, April 5.

According to LaNyalla, the state had to give in again by intercepting it so that big businessmen would not lose. So that HET is revoked, then replaced with BLT to the community so that people have purchasing power at economic prices.

Basically, although the provision of BLT is seen as positive, we all realize that BLT is not a complete solution to the messy cooking oil problem. In the medium to long term, this unhealthy competition in the cooking oil industry is clearly impossible to maintain. The government needs to get into issues that are more fundamental than the issue of cooking oil, namely monopoly in the palm oil industry.

The current situation is not easy, it is a pity if there are still many people who take the opportunity for personal or group interests.