House Of Representatives Commission VI Asks The Government To Audit Palm Oil Companies Transparently, What's The Goal?

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI DPR RI Amin Ak asked the government to audit palm oil producing companies in a transparent manner next June.

"Could it be that with an audit that is transparent and free of interest, the highest retail price (HET) could be below Rp. 14,000 per liter. Of course, this must be proven through the audit," said Amin Ak, quoted from Antara, Monday, May 30.

According to Amin, the most urgent audit to be carried out at this time should be by using the consumption side as a benchmark.

In other words, he continued, the government must set a benchmark for the selling price of the final product (cooking oil) and the amount needed.

The current stipulation, Amin said, is the regulation regarding HET which is pegged at Rp. 14,000 per liter with a total demand of 10 million tons of CPO (crude palm oil).

By drawing two lines from the demand side, continued Amin Ak, the urgent audit now is what the production costs and reasonable profit margins are to produce one liter of cooking oil.

He said the second audit that is currently urgent is the audit of data on the supply and distribution of CPO and cooking oil.

He argues that so far, the public has been suspicious of whether entrepreneurs really comply with the domestic market obligation (DMO) of 20 percent of CPO for domestic needs, especially in order to meet the supply of bulk cooking oil.

"With a transparent and interest-free audit mechanism, these questions will be answered," he said.

Amin emphasized that the audit results should only serve as a toothless tiger or even a bargaining chip for the interests of the rulers and the oil palm oligarchy.

Previously, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said he would conduct an audit of palm oil companies and ensure that they built a head office in Indonesia.

Luhut admitted that President Jokowi had asked him to solve the cooking oil problem in Java and Bali.

"As soon as the President asked me to manage cooking oil, people thought it was only cooking oil. No. I went straight to the top. You've read in the media, we have to audit all palm oil," he said at the National Marine Technology College (STTAL) seminar publicly. monitored online in Jakarta, Wednesday 25 May.

According to Luhut, the audit was conducted to identify and identify existing palm oil businesses.

This includes the area of the garden, production to the head office.

Luhut said that the head office of palm oil companies must be in Indonesia in order for them to pay taxes.

The reason is that there are still many palm oil companies whose head offices are abroad, causing Indonesia to lose potential income from taxes.