"Polri, together with the Ministry of Industry, has formed joint task forces that will be deployed to the central level, producers, and at the central offices. We will place personnel, from the police and from the Ministry of Industry, especially in several large producers, for 24 hours," National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo announced after a meeting with Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita at the National Police headquarters here on Monday.
Prabowo explained that the joint task forces will be tasked with supervising the production process and ensuring that business actors are committed to producing cooking oil in accordance with their agreement with the government.
He emphasized that all business actors that have been bound by a contract will be subsidized.
Currently, 79 cooking oil producers have registered to increase their production up to twice the national need in normal situations, the police chief said.
The task forces will carry out supervision at the distributor level by involving officers from the police’s security and public order unit (Bhabinkamtibmas) and intelligence.
The police chief expressed the hope that with the existence of the joint task forces, there will be no issues related to cooking oil scarcity and an increase in bulk cooking oil prices.
If those problems remain, Polri will take firm action against perpetrators, he stressed.
The National Police is aware of criminal modes related to cooking oil, such as repacking bulk cooking oil into packaged cooking oil to sell bulk cooking oil above the retail price ceiling (HET).
"We will take firm action. We want to ensure that everything is running well," he remarked.
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Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said that Industry Minister Regulation (Permenperin) Number 8 of 2022 strictly regulates sanctions on violators.
"There are sanctions for companies that do not comply with the rules outlined in Permenperin No. 8, for example, producers whose production does not match the allocation of the amount set by the Ministry of Industry," the minister added.
Related news: Police chief, minister discuss expediting cooking oil supply, price
Translator: Laily Rahmawaty, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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