Highlighting Cooking Oil Prices And Gerindra Scarcity: The Trade Minister's Policy Turns Out To Be A Paper Tiger

Minister of Trade M Lutfi/DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI of the House of Representatives Andre Rosiade strongly criticized the issuance of Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) 6/2022 concerning the Determination of the Highest Retail Price (HET) for Palm Cooking Oil. The reason is that the Permendag is considered unable to overcome the problem of scarcity of cooking oil in the market.

"The fact is that this policy turns out to be a paper tiger, unable to solve the cooking oil problem," said Andre in a working meeting with Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi, at the DPR building, Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday, March 17.

In Article 3 of the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 6 of 2022, the HET for cooking oil is Rp. 11,500 per liter for bulk cooking oil, Rp. 13,500 per liter for simple packaged cooking oil, and Rp. 14,000 per liter for premium packaged cooking oil.

However, Andre admitted that he found different facts when monitoring prices in the market. According to the data he got, the price of cooking oil was still above Rp. 20,000 per liter.

"The fact is that as of today, cooking oil is still scarce, even if there is, the price is insanely above Rp. 20,000," said the West Sumatran legislator.

The Gerindra politician admitted that Trade Minister Lutfi regularly visits the field to see the availability of cooking oil. However, said Andre, cooking oil is available only when Lutfi is in the market. Then, the cooking oil immediately disappeared three hours after reviewing.

"Three hours after you came home, the stock immediately disappeared, it disappeared immediately, that's the truth," said Andre.

Previously, the Minister of Trade (Mendag) Muhamad Lutfi said the policy was to revoke the provision for the highest retail price (HET) for packaged cooking oil in accordance with the direction of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). The policy for revocation of HET is stated in the Regulation of the Minister of Trade (Permendag) Number 11 of 2022.

Trade Minister Lutfi said this during a working meeting (Raker) with Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives regarding the discussion on commodity prices and the readiness of the Ministry of Trade to stabilize prices and supply of basic goods ahead of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, Thursday, March 17, 2022.

"In accordance with the President's directives, the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) as of March 16, 2022 issued Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) No. 11 of 2022 which revokes the HET provisions of Minister of Trade Regulation No. 06 of 2022 concerning Determining the Highest Retail Price of Cooking Oil. Minister of Trade Regulation No. 11 of 2022 is new and promulgated, effective from the date of promulgation," said Lutfi.

Lutfi explained that currently, the HET only applies to bulk cooking oil, which is Rp. 14,000 per liter or Rp. 15,500 per kg.

"All retailers who sell retail bulk cooking oil to consumers are required to follow the HET. The intended consumers are the public and MSMEs and all are subsidized by BPDPKS," said Lutfi.

The Trade Minister also had time to apologize during the meeting. He said that because one of them could not fulfill the invitation from the DPR leadership in a joint meeting with Commissions IV, VI, and VII DPR.