DPR Establishes Working Committee for Cooking Oil
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22 March 2022 12:40 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives' Commission decided to establish a working committee to address the issue of cooking oil scarcity and soaring prices. Commission leaders and a number of coalition party factions supporting the government did not agree with the proposal from the PKS Faction to form a Special Committee for Questionnaire Rights to address the cooking oil issue.
"We do not agree [with the proposal of a special committee for cooking oil]. It would only create further commotion. For now, we have formed a Working Committee for Food Commodities and Staples to explore this polemic," DPR Commission VI deputy chair of the Gerindra Party faction, Mohamad Hekal, said on Monday night, March 21.
Hekal will be the chairman of the working committee, which is scheduled to hold an internal meeting today.
The PKS faction had suggested the right of inquiry and said that a special committee should be established as the government had failed to overcome the turmoil in cooking oil prices, which had been going on for months. PKS Faction chairman in the DPR RI, Jazuli Juwaini, said his party saw indications of law violations in the cooking oil dispute and the government must be held accountable, both politically and legally.
Commission VI member from the PDIP faction, Deddy Yevri Hanteru Sitorus, disagreed with PKS' proposal, saying it did not "meet the constitutional legal requirements," he said yesterday.
According to Deddy, the cooking oil scarcity is caused by soaring prices of CPO and its derivatives due to the declining supply of vegetable oil, global energy crisis, and the Ukraine conflict. However, Indonesia is not running out of stock.
The problem, he said, is with profit seekers who try to benefit from the situation. "So it is very clear that the issue here is law enforcement," he said.
Read: New Cooking Oil Regulation Aims to Help Secure Supplies for MSMEs: Minister
DEWI NURITA