Failing To Manage Cooking Oil, It's Time For Trade Minister Lutfi To Be Fired

Indonesian Minister of Trade Muhammad Luthfi when giving information on cooking oil prices, in Banda Aceh, Saturday (26/2/2022) (ANTARA/Rahmat Fajri)

JAKARTA - Member of the PKS faction of the DPR RI, Johan Rosihan, assessed that the decision of the Minister of Trade (Mendag) to revoke the Highest Retail Price (HET) regulation is not a solution in dealing with the chaotic affairs of cooking oil in the country. He regretted the way the government worked in this cooking oil affair. Johan said that previously the Trade Minister Lutfi had said boldly that the HET for cooking oil would not be revoked. However, when cooking oil was scarce due to speculators and businessmen, said Johan, the Trade Minister shamelessly declared that the HET was revoked. "The impact is that the price of cooking oil will become very high and that will certainly burden the people's economic burden," Johan told reporters, Friday, March 18. The member of Commission IV of the DPR then explained the failure of the Minister of Trade Lutfi to manage cooking oil. Starting from uncontrollable price fluctuations for months, the scarcity of cooking oil in the market that occurs evenly throughout the country, the phenomenon of cooking oil queues experienced by the people that causes many victims, to failure to be aware of food inflation and inconsistent with HET regulations. Therefore, the PKS politician believes that it is appropriate for the Minister of Trade Lutfi to be removed immediately so that the problems concerning the needs of the people do not drag on. "For the failure to deal with cooking oil and always not attending joint meetings at the DPR to discuss cooking oil, the Trade Minister should be fired as proof that the government still has sides with people's affairs," said Johan. The NTB legislator reminded that cooking oil is one of the nine commodities. staples that are strategic and multi-purpose. He assessed that all Indonesians regret the way the Minister of Trade works today, which is very amateurish. "Because of the drastic increase in prices for months and then scarcity in the market, it will have a direct impact on consumers, both household consumers and consumers. industrial consumers, especially MSMEs in food processing," he said. "Therefore, there should still be many more appropriate solutions to prioritize the interests of the people in this cooking oil affair," added Johan. price increase me This is an event that repeats itself every year, especially before the month of Ramadan and Eid. "The government should learn from the experience of the previous year and make strategic steps to deal with various market fluctuations such as rising CPO prices on the international market so that it does not have a serious impact on fluctuations in cooking oil prices in the domestic market," explained Johan. seem sudden, sporadic and constantly changing. So it was concluded that there was no strategic roadmap in managing the supply and price of cooking oil. "Even though at this time it takes a 'cold hand' for a Trade Minister to be able to face the food mafia game and is committed to putting the interests of the people above other interests," said Johan. parties to be more concerned about urging the government not to play games in this cooking oil affair. "I emphasize that the decision by the Minister of Trade on the price of packaged cooking oil being released in accordance with the market mechanism is a misguided decision, because the price of cooking oil is included in government supervision with the aim of maintaining national food security," concluded Johan Rosihan. Previously, the Minister of Trade ( Minister of Trade, Muhamad Lutfi, said that the policy of revoking the highest retail price (HET) for packaged cooking oil was in accordance with the direction of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

Trade Minister Lutfi said this during a working meeting (Raker) with Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives regarding the discussion on commodity prices and the readiness of the Ministry of Trade to stabilize prices and supply of basic goods ahead of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, Thursday, March 17, 2022.

"In accordance with the President's directives, the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) as of March 16, 2022 issued Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) No. 11 of 2022 which revokes the HET provisions of Minister of Trade Regulation No. 06 of 2022 concerning Determining the Highest Retail Price of Cooking Oil. Minister of Trade Regulation No. 11 of 2022 is new and promulgated, effective from the date of promulgation," said Lutfi.

Lutfi explained that currently, the HET only applies to bulk cooking oil, which is Rp. 14,000 per liter or Rp. 15,500 per kg.

"All retailers who sell retail bulk cooking oil to consumers are required to follow the HET. The intended consumers are the public and MSMEs and all are subsidized by BPDPKS," said Lutfi.

Then, he also had time to apologize in the meeting. He said that because one of them could not fulfill the invitation from the DPR leadership in a joint meeting with Commissions IV, VI, and VII DPR.