Jakarta –
Chaotic about price and availability cooking oil senior economist Faisal Basri assessed that it was the government’s own doing. One of the government policies that Faisal Basri has accused of being the cause of the current cooking oil problem.
The policy referred to by Faisal Basri made a big shift in domestic consumption of Crude Palm Oil (CPO). He said the policy that was the culprit was the use of CPO for biofuels.
Faisal said that domestic consumption of CPO, which was previously dominated by the food industry, has now become the biodiesel industry. A sharp increase has occurred since 2020 with the implementation of the B20 Program (20% CPO content in biodiesel).
“The main culprit that caused the cooking oil chaos is the government because it lulled the biodiesel factory,” said Faisal Basri in the Gelora Talks entitled ‘Rare Cooking Oil, What’s Up?’, Wednesday (16/2/2022).
CPO consumption for biodiesel rose sharply from 5.83 million tons in 2019 to 7.23 million tons in 2020. On the other hand, CPO consumption for the food industry fell from 9.86 million tons in 2019 to 8.42 million tons in 2020.
This pattern of domestic CPO consumption is considered to continue and it is estimated that the portion for biodiesel will continue to increase in line with the increase in the portion of CPO in biodiesel through the B30 Program or even higher.
“So because it is mandatory, consumption increases, palm oil does not increase as fast as the demand for biodiesel (so) taken from this cooking oil, this food industry,” explained Faisal Basri.
Faisal said that entrepreneurs tend to channel their CPO to biodiesel factories because the government guarantees that the company will not lose money. This is because subsidies are disbursed from the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) if the domestic benchmark price is lower than the international price. On the other hand, if CPO is sold to a cooking oil factory, entrepreneurs do not get such an incentive.
“BPDPKS funds are enjoyed by big businessmen. This biofuel subsidy is 79.04%, the people only get 4.73%. So this government is crazy, there is no side for the people,” said Faisal Basri.
He said that until now tens of trillions of rupiah have been subsidized to biodiesel factories from palm oil funds managed by BPDPKS. There are at least 22 palm oil entrepreneurs who are said to enjoy this policy.
“Now the government puts more emphasis on energy, for the stomach for later matters. So for the energy to be pampered, for the stomach not to be pampered,” said Faisal Basri.
“So don’t be quick to blame entrepreneurs too because entrepreneurs are not prohibited from making a profit, of course entrepreneurs will look for fields that have more profits. Fortunately, they sell more to biodiesel. Who makes that? Yes, the government. So this government is mismanaged, a government that cannot govern,” he explained.
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