Deputy III of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) Panutan S. Sulendrakusuma accompanied by several KSP experts monitored cooking oil prices in a number of markets in Jakarta, Wednesday.
This was done to respond to public and retailer anxiety over the high price of cooking oil in the market.
"Based on the results of field checks, we found that cooking oil is not rare, but the price is expensive because the production process uses CPO (Crude Palm Oil) whose price in the world is also high," Panutan said in a press release in Jakarta, Wednesday.
He said that in carrying out its function of KSP to comprehensively solve problems of national priority programs, it continues to monitor food commodity prices regularly in traditional markets and modern retail.
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According to KSP monitoring, the price of packaged cooking oil in several markets, both in Central Jakarta and East Jakarta, is monitored at around Rp. 20,000-Rp. 21,000 per liter.
Meanwhile, bulk cooking oil is observed to be around Rp. 19,000-Rp. 20,000 per kg.
He said that the government is currently finalizing a plan to provide cooking oil with simple packaging of 1.2 billion liters within six months at a price of Rp. 14,000 per liter.
The cost needed to cover the price difference, amounting to IDR 3.6 trillion, will be sourced from the budget of the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP KS).
The President has assigned the Minister of Trade, the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Finance, and the President Director of the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) to accelerate the implementation of this policy.
The role model is of the opinion that in order for the market operation policy to be effective, the government must involve all market networks. He also believes that the supply of CPO to cooking oil producers needs to be secured so that price increases can be mitigated.