Buying Bulk Cooking Oil Must Use PeduliProtect, YLKI: Ridiculous!

Daily Chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, Tulus Abadi. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The government continues to socialize the transition to the change in the bulk cooking oil purchasing system with the PeduliLindung application.

This socialization has been running for three days and will continue for the next two weeks.

After the socialization period is complete, the government will require the purchase of bulk cooking oil with the PeduliLindung application.

In response to this, the Daily Chairperson of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) Tulus Abadi admitted that he did not approve of the policy to purchase bulk cooking oil using the PeduliLindung application.

According to him, the policy will make it difficult for the community, especially not all people have smart phones (smartphones).

"That's ridiculous. Why? There are 75 percent of smartphone holders, but 25 percent don't have a smartphone. This means they can't access PeduliLindungi, which means they can't buy cooking oil," Tulus said when met at Tanah Abang Station, Jakarta, Wednesday, June 29.

Therefore, Tulus also asked the government to cancel the policy of requiring the purchase of bulk cooking oil with the PeduliLindung application.

"If it is required (using the PeduliLindung application) I think it should be rejected and canceled. Because it is very restrictive for people, who used to buy cooking oil instead have to buy cellphones or smartphones first. So it doesn't make sense," he said.

According to Tulus, actually the government's policy by including the identification number (NIK) on the identity card (KTP), has been able to limit the purchase of bulk cooking oil.

"So it's true that with an ID card or NIK, don't enforce the policy with PeduliLindung. Because PeduliLindung means having to use a smartphone. Not all Indonesians have smartphones," he said.

Previously reported, Acting Deputy for Infrastructure and Transportation Coordinating Ministry Marves Rachmat Kaimuddin said that the change in the purchasing system for bulk cooking oil with the PeduliLindung application was not to make it difficult for the community.

However, continued Rachmat, this step was taken to ensure sales of bulk cooking oil were right on target, as well as a control tool in minimizing the potential for hoarding and smuggling.

Rachmat also explained the reason why the PeduliLindung application was chosen.

This is because the application is mature and familiar to the public in the last two years during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We don't want to make it difficult or complicated at all, but we are looking for a solution that we think has often been used but wants control because this item is not unlimited," he said in a virtual press conference, Tuesday, June 28.

The PeduliLindung application itself, said Rachmat, has been used by 90 million Indonesians.

Rachmat said, those who use the application can be trusted because it has been integrated with the population identification number (NIK) listed on the identity card (KTP).

Furthermore, Rachmat explained, this is different from purchases with conditions using an ID card. This is because there is a possibility that the person who bought bulk cooking oil used a fake ID card.

"We know how much is issued, we can see how many NIK are collected, we can see the average. If we look at a point of 10 kg per day, we play there, we can check with the Food Task Force, it's true that not all customers sell fried foods, for example ," he said.