Good News, Luhut Says The Government Guarantees Cooking Oil Prices Will Not Increase Again

JAKARTA - The government has officially changed the bulk cooking oil policy, which was previously based on subsidies, now to a domestic market obligation (DMO) and a domestic price obligation (DPO). With this new policy, the government guarantees that the price of cooking oil will not increase.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said this step was taken to ensure the availability of domestic cooking oil at an affordable price after the export ban was lifted.

With this policy, said Luhut, the government hopes that people will no longer have to worry about cooking oil being unavailable in the field. Luhut also ensured that incidents such as commodity shortages would not happen again.

"The government urges people not to panic or not to be confused or worried, domestic supply will decrease or prices will increase again, we make sure this does not happen," he said.

Luhut explained that in this transitional stage, the amount of DMO set by the government since June 1 is 300,000 tons of cooking oil per month. This amount is 50 percent higher than Indonesia's domestic needs.

"This is done to flood the domestic market so that it can make it easier for people to find cooking oil with the highest retail price (HET) of Rp. 14,000 (per liter) or 15,500 (per kg)," he said.

According to Luhut, the government will also distribute bulk cooking oil with HET to areas previously unreachable by this program. In fact, there will be compensation for additional transportation costs and compensation for additional multipliers.

"Through this mechanism, the government's program of bulk cooking oil for the people can be reached in all parts of Indonesia, because we will give a multiplier (remote areas get a lot of migrant supply) that increases according to distance or transportation costs," he explained.