Firm Steps By The Minister Of Trade Lutfi To Investigate Cooking Oil Hoarders Reap Support

Minister of Trade, M. Lutfi. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - The move by the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi, who will cooperate with law enforcement to take firm action against sellers of cooking oil selling above the highest retail price (HET) set by the government, is supported by many parties. Lutfi's steps are considered very fitting to defend the interests of the wider public.

"If someone says that the hoarders are residents, it's not true. But if it is speculators who hoard cooking oil, it could be true. Then, if the speculators are prosecuted legally, I agree because they cause unrest and cause food instability in Indonesia," said a member of the Commission. VI DPR Achmad Baidowi, Thursday 10 March.

According to him, government firmness is needed. This PPP politician said that if speculators and middlemen were being targeted, then he expressed his support.

Public Policy Observer, Trubus Rahadianto said that the step with law enforcement was the right step.

"If I see it, it's correct. Because there have been three problems that have caused the price of cooking oil to be problematic. One, the weak political will. So the political will from the government is very weak, so it's easy to manipulate the system by middlemen or brokers looking for profit. " he said.

Trubus continued, the second weakness is a matter of governance. Third, weak in terms of law enforcement.

"When the perpetrators are processed, this will create public trust or public trust will grow. Because if not, this incident will continue," he explained again.

Law enforcement, he said, must be carried out consistently and continuously. He also hopes that law enforcement is firm and not half-hearted.

A similar sentiment was expressed by an economist from the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia, Yusuf Rendy Manilet. According to him, the move by the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) in cooperating with the police to take action against sellers of expensive cooking oil is considered appropriate.

He argues that the Police are needed to oversee the long process from producers, downstream, to consumers.

"This police is one of the instruments," said Yusuf.

The action of the Minister of Trade Lutfi in cooperating with the Police to prevent hoarding which was followed by an increase in the price of cooking oil in the market, according to Yusuf, was the right thing to do. Especially in the momentum leading up to this Ramadan.

"Demand is high, prices will automatically rise, especially ahead of Ramadan," he said.

However, he stressed that using the police is only one instrument. Other steps are also needed to stabilize cooking oil prices or prevent shortages in the market.

According to him, so far there is a level between the signals from the government when issuing policies but are not caught by the public. So that there was panic buying which then resulted in an increase in cooking oil prices.

"In fact, the government has issued a subsidy policy, or DMO policy on domestic prices," said Yusuf again.

The involvement of the National Police to ensure that HET is actually implemented in the market, was revealed by the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi during a market visit. He even said that he would immediately go to the National Police Headquarters to discuss this when he visited the market.

"Both in modern retail and traditional markets," he said, while visiting the Kebayoran Lama Market, Jakarta, Wednesday, March 9.

Currently, said the Minister of Trade, the price of cooking oil should be in accordance with the HET because the domestic stock is in abundant condition due to the domestic market obligation (DMO) policy.

"DMO oil is abundant enough for more than one month, so if you ask when it will be stable? It should have been going on, and the price has gone down, if you look at the national average the price has fallen by Rp. 16,000 more than Rp. 2,000 from the HET price of Rp. 14,000. ," said Luffy.