Puan Reminds Government To Control Commodity Prices Ahead Of Christmas And New Year

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Puan Maharani/PHOTO via Instagram @ketua_dprri

JAKARTA - DPR Speaker Puan Maharani reminded the government to control commodity prices so as not to skyrocket ahead of the 2025 Christmas and New Year celebrations. According to him, the increase in community needs ahead of the celebration moment must be anticipated from an early age.

"We urge the Government to control the prices of basic necessities to ensure that people can enjoy Christmas and New Year's Eve without worrying about rising commodity prices," said Puan Maharani, Friday, December 6.

Puan also highlighted the price of people's cooking oil or Minya Kita, which was later complained by the public because it shot up high from the highest retail price (HET).

"We appreciate the government's efforts in overcoming the issue of the increase in people's cooking oil prices, but it must also ensure that our Minya Kita's supply is evenly distributed to all regions, even to the 3TP area (lagging behind, leading, outermost and bordering)," he said.

In addition to the Minya Kita price problem that exceeds HET, Puan also highlighted the findings of cooking oil manipulation. "So it's not only a matter of limited production and stock, but there is also a misappropriation of cooking oil due to the price disparities of various types of cooking oil that are high," said Puan.

According to the Indonesian Vegetable Oil Industry Association, the price of premium cooking oil currently reaches up to Rp. 21,000 per liter. Meanwhile, Minya Kita in modern retail ranges from Rp. 15,700 per liter, and bulk cooking oil is Rp. 17,000-Rp.

18,000 per liter.

On the other hand, the price of used oil or jelantah for biodiesel raw materials in the international market is quite high, which is around Rp. 18,000 per liter. The price disparities that are quite high are used by certain elements by buying cooking oil to be manipulated.

These naughty individuals then sell the manipulated oil abroad in the form of broken oil or trade it as bulk cooking oil with a higher price. As a result of this fraud, the people's cooking oil stock, which should have been abundant, could not be felt by the community.

"Secrets like this should be the attention of the Government, law enforcement, and other relevant stakeholders. As a result of the irresponsible game of elements, the community has difficulty getting cheap cooking oil," said Puan.

The scarcity also makes oil prices higher. In the end, the people are still victims. We ask for intervention to overcome such manipulation or misappropriation," continued the chairman of the PDIP DPP.

On the other hand, the government through Perum Bulog stated that the supply and price of rice ahead of Christmas and New Year's 2024/2025 is quite safe. Even so, it has been observed that there has been an increase in the price of a number of commodity items such as shallots, garlic, red cayenne pepper, pure beef, broiler eggs, simple packaged cooking oil, flour (curah), and even bloating fish.

"At the end of the year, there is usually an increase in the price of the basic needs of the community. This is what the Government should pay attention to in order to maintain the trend of rising commodity prices," said Puan.