Jokowi Will Directly Monitor The Policy Of Banning The Export Of Cooking Oil And Raw Goods

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Screenshot of Youtube @SecretariatPresident)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has confirmed that he will directly monitor the policy of banning the export of cooking oil and its raw materials.

This confirmation was conveyed by Jokowi after holding a meeting with the relevant ministries and institutions today, Friday, April 22.

"I will continue to monitor and evaluate the implementation of this policy so that the availability of cooking oil in the country is abundant at affordable prices", Jokowi said in a video statement broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Friday, April 22.

Jokowi announced that the government had adopted a policy of banning the export of cooking oil and its raw materials. This prohibition will be effective on Thursday, April 28, until an undetermined time.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta hopes that the ban can meet the needs of the people in the country.

"I have decided that the government will ban the export of raw materials for cooking oil and cooking oil starting Thursday, April 28 until a time limit will be determined later", he said.

Previously, President Jokowi acknowledged that the regulations for regulating cooking oil prices and their availability in the market had not been maximized. Several regulations, including the determination of the Highest Retail Price (HET) for bulk cooking oil, have also not been implemented in the market.

So, he suspected that there had been a game that caused the price of cooking oil to be high.

"The determination of the HET for bulk oil and then subsidies to these producers, we have seen that it has been running for the past few weeks have not been effective. In the market, I see a lot of bulk oil that is not by the HET that we set. It means that there is a game", said Jokowi in his statement at the Bangkal Market, Sumenep Regency, Madura, East Java, which was broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Wednesday, April 20.

In addition, Jokowi also highlighted the determination of four suspected corruption suspects in the alleged corruption case in the provision of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) export facilities by the Attorney General's Office. He asked the Adhyaksa Corps to thoroughly investigate the parties behind the expensive and scarce cooking oil in the country.

"Yesterday the Attorney General's Office has named four suspects in this cooking oil affair and I ask that they be thoroughly investigated so that we can know who is playing, we can understand", he said.

For information, the Attorney General's Office of the Director-General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade with the initials IWW as suspects along with three private persons in the alleged corruption case in the provision of export facilities.

The private parties who were also involved were the Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs of Permata Hijau Group with the initials SMA; Commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia with the initials MPT; and the General Manager of PT Musim Mas with the initials PT.

The Attorney General's Office said that three suspects from the company had intensively tried to approach the Director-General of Trade at the Ministry of Trade IWW to obtain a CPO export permit. In fact, the three are not companies that are entitled to export approval.

As a result of their actions, the suspects have caused losses to the country's economy. In addition, they also make cooking oil expensive and scarce in the country.