Lampung Police Finds 345.600 Liters Of Cooking Oil Not Distributed

A joint team from the Lampung Regional Police, the Industry and Trade Service together with the Food Task Force at the National Police Headquarters conducted an inspection of cooking oil at CV Sinar Laut, Bandarlampung City. Tuesday, (22/2/2022). (ANTARA/Dian Hadiyatna)

BANDAR LAMPUNG - The Lampung Regional Police (Polda) found that 32.000 boxes of cooking oil or around 345.600 liters in CV Sinar Laut, Bandarlampung City, Lampung Province had not been distributed to the public.

"These are all goods, we previously asked not to be exported, and immediately distributed to the public," said Dirkrimsus Polda Lampung Kombes Arie Rachman Nafarin, in Bandarlampung quoted by Antara, Tuesday, February 22.

He said the holding of thousands of liters of cooking oil in the CV Sinar Laut warehouse was due to the company's administrative process which had not yet been completed.

"The owner of this company said that the goods have not been released because the administrative system has been running for a long time at the center, so that distribution to the community is a bit hampered," he said.

Regarding indications of hoarding of cooking oil, the Dirkrimsus Polda Lampung said the holding of this cooking oil in the warehouse was due to unfinished administration.

"The stockpile is because the administration has not been resolved, because there is a price difference. That's why these goods cannot be exported and must be sold domestically," he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of CV Sinar Laut Andre Wijaya denied that his company had stockpiled hundreds of thousands of liters of cooking oil in its warehouse.

"This is not hoarding, there is no hoarding because all these cooking oil stocks have been registered with the Ministry of Trade," he said.

According to him, the tens of thousands of boxes of cooking oil have not been distributed because there is a price difference with the highest retail price (HET) set by the government.

"The problem is that the old stock that we buy is high, while the HET from the government is now IDR 14.000, so we are looking for a bridge so that it can be distributed immediately," he said.

In fact, he said, his party had been summoned by the Ministry of Trade and met by exporters who wanted to buy the old stock of cooking oil.

"So this exporter is to bridge us so that they want to buy the standard price of Rp. 18 thousand, then sell it again to us with HET, then we take it again to be immediately distributed to the community, in this case, we are not allowed to take a single rupiah profit and goods must be distributed immediately," he said.

A member of the Food Task Force at the National Police Headquarters, Kombes Eka Mulyana, said that his party had come to supervise and supervise the government's determination of one-price cooking oil.

"So we really come to each region to monitor whether the central government's policies are implemented or not in the field," he said.