Ensure Safe Fuel And Food Stocks During Christmas And New Year, NTB Police Still Monitor Prevent Hoarding

Gas station officers filled up the fuel. (ANTARA-M Agung Rajasa).

NTB - West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Regional Police Chief Inspector General Raden Umar Faroq ensures that food stocks for Christmas 2023 and New Year's 2024 needs are safe.

"For Christmas and New Year's needs, food stocks in NTB are still safe and sufficient, even availability is still safe until February 2024," said Inspector General of Police Raden Umar Faroq in Mataram, Friday, December 22.

The NTB Police Chief revealed this based on the results of coordination with the NTB Food Security Service, Bulog, and Regional Inflation Control Team (TPID).

"So, the certainty of this stock is said to be safe and sufficient based on the results of coordination. The stock of fuel from the results of coordination has also been confirmed safe," he said.

Regarding food prices, from the results of coordination, it was stated that prices were still stable. The existence of price fluctuations is said to be under control.

Even so, the NTB Police Chief emphasized that his party is still monitoring food distribution to prevent hoarding actions that can affect the scarcity of goods and have an impact on price spikes.

"Essentially, we are still doing mitigation, mapping, if there are criminal allegations (stolen), the team will immediately take action in the field," he said.

In an effort to keep food prices stable during the momentum of the 2023 Christmas and 2024 New Year celebrations, Bank Indonesia NTB together with TPID NTB also carried out monitoring in the field.

"We together with TPID, including OPD and food task force, ensure that inflation is maintained in the range of 3 plus minus 1 percent in 2023. We carry out market operations by bringing BI clusters to help maintain prices in the market," said Deputy Head of Bank Indonesia Representative NTB Winda Putri Listya.

Market operations are considered quite effective for price stabilization in the short term. However, for the medium and long term, Winda said that strategies in an effort to maintain food price stabilization must be more structural.

"In controlling inflation, we must look from two sides, namely the demand and supply side. Therefore, through the 4K strategic program, we continue to encourage production centers to increase their productivity," he said.

In an effort to maintain inflation, Winda appealed to the public to play an active role by not buying basic commodities excessively.