About SOEs Asked To Become Cooking Oil Distributors, Erick Thohir: Learned First

The SOE Minister reviewed the additional market operations carried out by PPTN in Kuala Tanjung, North Sumatra, Saturday, January 8. (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), Erick Thohir, admitted that he is still studying to assign state-owned companies to be distributors of cooking oil to the market. Although, several relevant ministries and institutions (K/L) have proposed that BUMN become distributors.

Furthermore, Erick admitted that he was invited to participate in a Limited Coordination Meeting (Rakortas) regarding maintaining the stability of domestic cooking oil. Through the meeting, SOEs were asked to intervene in the market through distribution channels.

However, Erick emphasized that until now he has not decided whether BUMN will take part in the distribution of cooking oil or not. He said he would study whether the BUMN was able to get the assignment.

"We'll study it first. Because we shouldn't say we can afford it, even though we can't", said Erick, when met at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) area, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday, April 27.

Erick explained that one of the tasks of SOEs is to balance the market. Because, if a commodity is only controlled by a handful of people, it will affect the industry. In fact, including the price.

Furthermore, Erick said that later the results of the study conducted by his party would determine the involvement of SOEs in the cooking oil distribution process.

"So we study first, but that is our function to balance the market, the market can't be monopolized by one party", he said.

For your information, the ministries/agencies held a limited coordination meeting on the follow-up to the cooking oil policy on April 24. Present at the event were Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Panjaitan, Director-General of Foreign Trade Ministry of Trade, Veri Anggrijono.

Then, Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo, Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi, Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang, Deputy Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara, to President Director of Bulog Budi Waseso.

The results of the meeting were also conveyed by Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto on Tuesday, April 27. Airlangga ensured that he only prohibited the raw material for cooking oil, namely refined, bleached, deodorized (RBD) palm olein until the price of cooking oil could drop to IDR 14,000 per liter.

"Because this is a policy solely so that oil-related activities in the community can be better accessed", said Airlangga, in a virtual press conference, Tuesday, April 27.

Airlangga also emphasized that this policy will be evaluated periodically by looking at the existing conditions. "This is a kind of regulatory sandbox that will continue to be adjusted", he said.

Airlangga said, there were two events carried out by the government in pushing the price of bulk cooking oil to reach IDR 14,000 per liter. First, by involving BPDPKS to provide price difference subsidies to cooking oil producers. The goal is to make the price accepted by the community more affordable.

Then, Airlangga continued, the second task was to assign Perum Bulog to distribute bulk cooking oil to traditional markets. The reason is, that there are several RBD Olein producers whose orientation is export, and do not have a distribution network to the public.