Ministry Of Trade Refuses To Pay Migor Rafaction, Ketum Aprindo: We Have Been Abused

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association (Aprindo) regrets the government's attitude, in this case the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag), which has no intention of paying off the debt of cooking oil (migor) raffactions worth IDR 344 billion.

"We have been wronged, we are sincere but not understood, not resolved. In fact, it is not a problem of not being able to, but (the Ministry of Trade) has no intention of resolving it," said Aprindo General Chair Roy N Mandey at a press conference in Jakarta, quoted Friday, January 19.

Roy even criticized the Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan or Zulhas who was also the General Chair of PAN, who was actually busy campaigning rather than resolving the debt polemic that had been running for almost 2 years.

Roy explained that the Ministry of Trade itself had received directions from the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Kemenko Polhukam) to hold a special meeting with the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs (Kemenko Perekonomian) to discuss debt since August 2023 yesterday. However, the discussion meeting has not yet been held.

"The period from August (2023) the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs gave a letter to immediately have a limited meeting (ratas) with the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy discussing the issue of the Rafaction, but until today it has been more than three months without implementation. In fact, the office distance between the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy and the Ministry of Trade is only 1.5 km, the time is not, it means there is no intention. In fact, it is from the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs," he said.

"So when asked about busy, we don't understand the busy word, only 1.5 kilometers from the Ministry of Trade's office and the office of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy. If you can't, then go online, pay for the raid, don't argue with caution interests," he continued.

He also emphasized that his party would take the case of paying the default debt to legal channels after the document for the legal standing of the problem could be clearly collected.

"We need to ensure that the legal standing is fulfilled. This means that the agreement with the government is not directly to retail but to producers. So, there needs to be together producers and distributors who are affected by the unpaid faction, together with retailers, we sue the government," he said.

Furthermore, Roy also emphasized that his party would not back down to resolve the polemic with the government. This is because the debt is indeed the government's obligation to pay to retailers.

"It is certain that we will not resign, will not give up, will not be afraid, will not worry about anyone. Because this is talking about the obligations that we have to fulfill after the order of the Permendag. We have fulfilled our obligations but we have not received the rights," he said.

For your information, the source of the default debt began in early January 2022 when the price of cooking oil soared to a limited stock.

The government, in this case, is that the Ministry of Trade makes various efforts to reduce this price, one of which is by issuing Regulation of the Minister of Trade (Permendag) Number 3 of 2022 concerning the Provision of Packaged Cooking Oil for Community Needs in the Financing Framework by the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) on January 19.

The Permendag wants the fulfillment of cooking oil needs at one price.

At that time there was also a policy set, namely the Economic Reference Price (HAK) and the Highest Retail Price (HET).

At that time, the cooking oil rights were Rp. 17,260 per liter and the HET was Rp. 14,000 per liter.

Finally, Aprindo through its members ordered to sell cooking oil at one price, namely Rp. 14,000 according to the Permendag.

Whatever the price they buy from producers, it must still be sold for Rp. 14,000 per liter according to HET.

In short, the payment made by the government to business actors was based on the difference between the price of Rp. 17,260 per liter and Rp. 14,000.

Unfortunately at that time, the Ministry of Trade experienced delays in verifying so that it had a long tail to date.

The promise to pay, the Ministry of Trade instead revoked the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 3 of 2022 and replaced it with Permendag Number 6 of 2022 concerning the Determination of the Highest Retail Price of Sawi Cooking Oil

Meanwhile, based on Aprindo data as of January 31, 2022, the bill for the fraction of cooking oil reached more than Rp. 300 billion from national and local network retailers throughout Indonesia.