The Minister Of Finance Has Yet To Determine The Price Of Damaged Bulog Rice

Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has yet to determine a mechanism for paying the price difference after Bulog plans to auction off the government's reserve rice due to deterioration in quality.

"Later I will look at the mechanisms and procedural rules needed for that," he said in Jakarta, Friday 20 December.

The Minister of Finance also has not confirmed the optimization of the government in helping to deal with this price difference. "I'll see first, the mechanism, the basis for the rules," he said.

Previously, Director of Perum Bulog, Budi Waseso, in a press conference on Tuesday (3/12) said that the government's rice reserves that had deteriorated or were damaged would be auctioned off before the rice was reprocessed into other products.

He explained that at least 20 thousand tonnes of Government Rice Reserves (CBP) had been declared damaged or deteriorated, after going through laboratory examinations recommended by the POM Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture.

In accordance with the Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture Number 38 of 2018 concerning Management of Government Rice Reserves (CBP), it is stated that CBP must be disposed of if it has exceeded the shelf life of at least four months or has the potential and or has experienced quality degradation.

However, the rice actually still has benefits by processing, exchanging, selling it under HET, and donating it for humanitarian assistance.

The Managing Director of Bulog also outlined a number of schemes for the disposal of CBP rice, including reprocessing it into rice flour, chicken feed, and other ingredients that cannot be consumed anymore, namely into ethanol.

Before being reprocessed, Budi Waseso emphasized that he would first open an auction to sell the lower quality rice. The funds obtained from the auction proceeds will be received by Bulog to be reported to the Ministry of Finance.

Because of this disposal policy, the rice that will be auctioned will certainly experience a decrease in price. Therefore, the man who is familiarly called Buwas has also proposed reimbursement of the price difference to the government.

"Because this is CBP, we are proposing a price difference with the selling price. If we used to buy Rp. 8,000 per kilogram, the price (auctioned off) was Rp. 3,000, the difference of Rp. 5,000 was reimbursed by the state," said Buwas.