"(Merchants must make) the announcement that customers will be allowed to buy only two liters or two bottles (per person per day). Yes, it will be burdensome (to use an ID card), and installing that announcement will suffice," Hasan said after sending off an export consignment of a small and medium enterprise here on Friday.
The minister's remarks effectively overturned the identification card requirement for purchasing MinyaKita products, which he himself conveyed during a visit to Kreneng Market, Denpasar, Bali, on February 4, 2023.
MinyaKita will now be sold only in traditional markets as the product is meant for lower-income residents and is being provided to prevent oil scarcity, he affirmed.
"We will stop online and wholesale selling as we will focus on traditional markets now. If you want MinyaKita cooking oil, buy it in traditional markets because it is for lower-income residents. Other residents must buy premium (cooking oil) instead," Hasan said.
Meanwhile, acting director general of trade at the Trade Ministry, Kasan, said that the ministry has issued Circular No. 3 of 2023 on the sale of people's cooking oil products, which restricts the sale of MinyaKita to 10 kilograms per person per day.
MinyaKita cooking oil must also not be sold under a bundling mechanism, which requires residents to purchase another product to buy cooking oil, he added.
"The sale of people's cooking oil as described in part A (of the circular) should not be conducted by bundling mechanism with other products," Kasan said.
The same circular also prohibits merchants from selling the subsidized cooking oil product at prices above the highest retail price of Rp14 thousand, and requires producers, distributors, and retailers to observe the domestic price obligation.
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Translator: Maria Cicilia, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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