JAKARTA - Minister of Trade (Mendag) for the 2015'2016 period Thomas Trikasih Lembong or Tom Lembong said the sugar import policy issued during his tenure as a mendag benefits farmers, not harms them.
This was in response to accusations that he had violated the Farmers' Protection Act (UU).
"Farmers can easily sell their sugar or sugar cane above the Government Purchase Price (HPP), until PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) does not get it. It means that farmers are happy, there is no problem," said Tom Lembong during a witness examination hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Monday, March 24.
Initially, Tom Lembong asked former Secretary of the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) Robert Indartyo, who was a witness at the trial, regarding Robert's statement regarding PPI which had difficulty meeting the target of procuring 200 thousand tons of sugar with a cellphone of Rp. 8,900 per kilogram.
This question was also confirmed by Robert. Robert also explained that PPI cannot meet the target because farmers prefer to participate in sugar auctions in the market at a higher price than the government price.
Thus, according to Tom Lembong, PPI does not need to carry out its function as a guarantor of sugar prices so as not to fall below the HPP of IDR 8,900.
"Farms are satisfied with the principle of buying buyers willing sellers. They are voluntarily, not forced to release their sugar and sugar cane at the price above the set," said Tom Lembong.
Therefore, he continued, the accusation that he violated the Farmers' Protection Act was undeniable. The reason is, farmers are actually happy with the market situation during his leadership as a mendag.
Tom Lembong also responded to other accusations that he issued a sugar import policy while the market was in surplus.
He explained that in 2015-2016, Indonesia did not experience a sugar surplus. This was based on the minutes of a coordination meeting of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy (Kemenko) at the end of 2015.
Another thing that underlies the issuance of sugar import permits at that time, he continued, was because PPI failed to reach the target of 200 thousand tons and did not get sugar from farmers because the price was cheaper.
In addition, he also emphasized that there are no rules prohibiting PPI or State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) from collaborating with the private sugar industry in managing imported crude sugar to support price stabilization and national sugar stock fulfillment.
"Earlier, we made sure that witnesses from the Ministry of Trade did not prohibit PT PPI or other SOEs from stabilizing sugar prices to cooperate with distributors, in order to optimize the distribution of domestic sugar," he said.
In the case of alleged corruption in sugar imports at the Ministry of Trade in 2015 '2016, Tom Lembong was charged with causing state financial losses of IDR 578.1 billion, among others for issuing an import recognition letter or approval of imports of raw crystal sugar for the 2015'2016 period to 10 companies without being based on inter-ministerial coordination meetings and without any recommendations from the Ministry of Industry.
The letter of import recognition or approval of imports of raw crystal sugar for the 2015'2016 period to the parties is allegedly given to import raw crystal sugar to be processed into white crystal sugar, even though Tom Lembong knows the company has no right to process raw crystal sugar into white crystal sugar because the company is a refined sugar company.
Tom Lembong is also said to have not appointed state-owned enterprises (BUMN) to control the availability and stabilization of sugar prices, but to appoint the Kartika Cooperative Identification (Inkopkar), the Main Cooperative of the Indonesian National Police (Inkoppol), the Indonesian National Police Cooperative Center (Puskopol), and the TNI/Polri Employee Welfare Cooperative Unit (SKKP).
For his actions, Tom Lembong is threatened with a crime as regulated in Article 2 Paragraph (1) or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law (UU) Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 jo. Article 55 Paragraph (1) 1st of the Criminal Code.
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