Regarding The Alleged Cooking Oil Price Cartel, KPPU Will Continue To Summon Two Cooking Oil Producers Next Week

KPPU. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has begun summoning cooking oil producers to ask for information and look for evidence related to allegations of unfair business competition in this commodity sector.

KPPU's Head of Public Relations and Cooperation Deswin Nur said that this summons was a follow-up to KPPU's findings and studies on the issue of the recent spike in cooking oil prices. "Of the three calls addressed by KPPU to producers, two of them are rescheduled for next week," said Dewsin in a press release quoted by Antara, Saturday, February 5.

For information, he said, the KPPU's study concluded that there is an oligopolistic market structure in the cooking oil sector because most of the cooking oil market (CR4 or the concentration ratio of the 4 largest companies) is controlled by four producers. KPPU found that there were indications of price increases which were simultaneously carried out by business actors at the end of last year.

He said that this factor made KPPU bring the matter to the realm of law enforcement since January 26, 2022. At the beginning of the law enforcement process in this initiative, KPPU focused on finding at least one evidence of violation of Law Number 5 of 1999 along with the alleged articles that were violated. as well as the reported parties involved.

"The summons has been carried out since today (Saturday) for the three cooking oil producers and will continue with the summons for other cooking oil producers in the coming week," Deswin added.

He explained that some of the summons would explore in detail the initial information related to producers and information regarding the company's business processes that exist in the cooking oil industry and the construction of anti-competitive behavior, particularly aspects of price formation, validation of various issues that develop in the market, and other aspects that are considered related to potential violations of the law.

If at least one piece of evidence is found, he said, KPPU can improve the status of law enforcement in the investigation process. The whole process will be greatly influenced by the information, evidence obtained, and the cooperation shown by the parties. For this reason, KPPU urges all parties to comply with the ongoing law enforcement process.

Previously, the Denpasar City Department of Industry and Trade (Disperindag) monitored cooking oil prices in several traditional markets, including Kreneng Market, Nyanggelan Market, and Agung Market.

The Head of Industry and Trade of Denpasar, Ni Nyoman Sri Utari, said that the price of cooking oil had increased since before Christmas 2021 and New Year's 2022. Even the price of cooking oil had soared almost double or 100 percent. Because the normal price of cooking oil is around Rp. 14,000 per liter.

From the monitoring results, he said, there are still traders in traditional markets who sell cooking oil prices at the old price of IDR 21,000 to IDR 22,000 per liter, but his party has made efforts to reduce the price with the relevant agencies so that the price of cooking oil can be stable.