Cooking Oil and Fuel Prices Rise, Puan: This Condition is Burdening the People

Archive. Speaker of the House of Representatives Puan Maharani (center). (Nailin-VOI)

JAKARTA - The Chair of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan Maharani, highlighted the increase in the price of basic necessities due to global geopolitical dynamics. He also asked the Government to take control and mitigation measures because this condition is burdensome for the people.

"Global geopolitical conflicts are beginning to be felt in the national economy. Including the surge in energy prices and a number of basic necessities. This condition is certainly burdensome for the people, especially people from small economic groups," said Puan in his statement, Wednesday, April 22.

Puan assessed that the increase in the price of cooking oil that occurred in more than half of Indonesia must be read from the perspective closest to people's lives. According to him, for many families, cooking oil is not a commodity that can be postponed so that the price increase feels very burdensome, especially households with tight spending.

"Therefore, every price increase immediately changes the composition of daily spending, and the impact on the community is how one basic need begins to take a larger share of their daily spending," said Puan.

Moreover, he continued, the price of fuel also added to the burden that families had to bear. Although the current fuel price increase is only for non-subsidies, Puan said, the government also needs to look at the conditions in the field.

"In many areas, people have difficulty getting subsidized fuel so that those who are entitled are forced to buy non-subsidized fuel which has significantly increased in price. The same condition also occurs with LPG. And we know together, the increase in fuel and LPG will definitely have a downstream impact on the price of other commodities. This affects people's purchasing power," he said.

For this reason, Puan asked the Government to immediately take steps to control prices. "If it is not controlled quickly, this increase can trigger expectations of other goods rising in the market. This will add to the burden of people who are already in a difficult economic condition," he said.

Puan also encouraged the Government and related parties to mitigate the increasingly uncertain geopolitical situation, especially in terms of the price and availability of fuel, LPG, and cooking oil.

"The government must be able to mitigate readiness related to fuel prices with this increase, plus now LPG and cooking oil have also increased in price," said Puan.

"For the increase in the price of non-subsidized fuel, there must be fairness and an explanation given as to why the price has increased and until when, and whether the price will continue to rise or what it will be like," he concluded.

As is known, currently Indonesia is facing a phenomenon of skyrocketing prices of a number of commodities. From the energy side, the Government has just significantly increased the price of non-subsidized Fuel Oil (BBM).

Most recently, the price of non-subsidized LPG also officially increased by 18 percent after there was a shortage of subsidized LPG stocks for some time in many areas. Not to mention, the price of cooking oil has been climbing for some time.

The surge in cooking oil prices was triggered by the increase in the price of the main raw material, namely Crude Palm Oil (CPO), which continues to strengthen in the global market. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that cooking oil prices rose in many areas in the third week of April 2026, where as many as 207 regencies/cities or 57.5 percent of the region experienced an increase.

The national average price rose from Rp. 19,358 to Rp. 19,592 per liter, but there were also recorded prices for cooking oil reaching Rp. 60,000 per liter, specifically in Intan Jaya Regency, Papua.