Cross Culture Institute scholar Ali Syarief has recently joined the conversation of the cooking oil shortage by tweeting on his personal Twitter account. Even though the problem is currently being handled politically, the oil is still not available to the market, he said.
“Politically processed, even cooking oil, not yet normal but are still easy to find (the stock of cooking oil in Alfamart was empty until yesterday),” Syarief said as quoted from his Twitter @alisyarief by PikiranRakyat-Depok.com on Sunday, February 7, 2022.
He continued the remark by questioning the additional subsidy of Rp76 trillion recently dropped by the government.
“76T subsidy for the one-price (policy), what does that mean?” Syarief said, ending his Tweet.
The government is currently facing the problem of fulfilling the need for cooking oil for the communities as well as micro and small industries. They aim to close the gap of cooking oil prices in the country, especially those with volumes of 1, 2, 5, and 25 liters.
They recently increased the subsidy for oil to Rp7.6 trillion, previously Rp3.6 trillion. The policy implementation is based on the availability and affordability of oil to the people.
Coordinating Minister of the Economy Department Airlangga Hartarto shared a statement during the BPDPKS Directing Committee Meeting Tuesday, January 18, 2022. They decided to close the cooking oil price gap with financial assistance from the BPDPKS (Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency).
Hartarto said the government will continue to evaluate and monitor the implementation of the policy at least once a month.
The article was translated from Pikiran-Rakyat.com‘s article titled “Minyak Goreng Masih Langka, Ali Syarief Singgung Subsidi Rp76 Triliun: Apa Artinya?”.
Source : https://www.jakartadaily.id/macro-economy/pr-1622625767/ali-syarief-questions-governments-76-trillion-subsidy-amidst-cooking-oil-scarcity
