Mayor Of Bogor Urges Government To Evaluate Minister Of Trade On Volatility In Cooking Oil Prices

BOGOR - Mayor of Bogor, West Java, Bima Arya urged the central government to evaluate the performance of the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) regarding the volatility in the price of bulk cooking oil which has not yet matched the highest retail price (HET) of RP14,000 per liter in the region.

"So I again urge the central government to evaluate the Ministry of Trade, its performance. We have to really take care of it, this problem cannot be solved," said Bima Arya, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, May 10.

Bima Arya believes that the high price volatility in the market shows that there are still unresolved problems at the Ministry of Trade, even though there have been arrests of individuals who passed that the export of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) did not comply with government regulations.

According to data from the Department of Cooperatives, MSMEs, Industry and Trade (DiskopUMKMdagin) of Bogor City, the price of bulk cooking oil in traditional markets in the area is still sold by traders for Rp. 19,000 per liter.

Even the data in the Bogor Market and Pasar Anyar, the average selling price of bulk cooking oil is between Rp. 19,000 to Rp. 20,000.

"Yes, that is, yes, it means that the problems upstream have not been resolved by the central government, in this case the Ministry of Trade," said Bima.

The Mayor of Bogor said that the price fluctuation due to limited stock and distribution of bulk cooking oil clearly harmed all parties, especially the economically weak community and traders.

"This is detrimental to our citizens, detrimental to oil traders, all food traders, stalls like that," he said.

Bima hopes that the central government will not lose to the interests of the cooking oil mafia, which is clearly detrimental to the wider community. In addition, he appreciates the legal steps that have been given to the person with the scarcity of cooking oil stocks.

"Don't lose to the business interests of big companies. Don't lose to the oil mafia. Yes, we appreciate the legal steps, but these legal steps should also be accompanied by the normalization of prices in the market, in the field," said Bima.

The Attorney General's Office has named the Director General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana (IWW) as one of the suspects in the cooking oil mafia case.

He was named a suspect along with three other people from the private sector, namely Stanle MA (SMA), Senior Manager Corporate Affairs of Permata Hijau Group, Master Parulian Tumanggor (MPT), Commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, and Picare Togar Sitanggang (PT), General Manager General Affairs of PT Musim Mas.