DPR to Form Rice Committee
26 February 2015 20:10 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives (DPR) plans to form a special committee to handle issues related to rice to outline trade problems that have caused the price of rice to increase in the past few weeks.
"We will see who must be held responsible," said Daniel Djohan, member of DPR's Commission IV from the National Awakening Party.
Daniel suspected that the increase of rice price was the work of traders at the Cipinang Rice Market to force the government to import rice.
He said that the extremely high price could also be caused by flawed market operation conducted by National Logistics Agency (Bulog), which was recently directed to wholesalers at Cipinang Market, making it prone to price manipulation.
In order to avoid misappropriation, distribution of Bulog's rice should be directed to rice traders instead of wholesalers. Daniel said that Bulog could form a cooperative that will serve as an agent for distributing rice to traders in markets.
ROBBY IRFANY
