“I am grateful for the (Rp14-thousand cooking oil) because (my business production) stopped for a while. (SMEs communities) cannot afford expensive cooking oil,” a Pinang Beres SME member, Nenden Pratiwi, said in Tangerang, Banten on Wednesday.
To keep running her business, Pratiwi said she tried to keep the sale price the same even when cooking oil price rose.
However, Pratiwi, who also owns a restaurant business, was forced to increase the price, which affected her customers' purchasing power.
“Slowly, the (business) margin became less, so finally I decided to stop production,” she added.
With the one-price cooking oil policy, she said she can resume production.
An SME member from Kunciran Indah in Tangerang, Sutiyah, shared a similar sentiment. Sutiyah sells deep-fried snacks and thus, cooking oil is one of her main ingredients.
She said she was happy with the policy that has made cooking oil affordable again.
Before the one-price policy, she and other fried-snack sellers had to increase the prices of their products, she said.
"On average, we increased (the price) by Rp500. We also saved more cooking oil and other ingredients, such as flour, whose price also rose up," she added.
"The Rp-14 thousand price really helps. Even though I wish the price went back to Rp19 thousand per two liters," Herlina, who runs a catering and cake business, remarked.
The government is committed to meeting the people's needs at affordable prices. For instance, when the price of cooking oil rose up, the government set a policy of one-price cooking oil, capping the rate at Rp14 thousand per liter in a market operation that began on Wednesday (January 19, 2022) at 12:01 a.m. local time.
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Translator: Sella G, Kenzu T
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2022
