Already Imported, But Rice Is Still Expensive, Buwas Blames Unscrupulous Pages all

KOMPAS.com – Main Director of Public Corporation Bulog Budi Waseso or Buwas accusing someone of selling Bulog rice to traders at high prices. These individuals, both rice traders and Bulog employees, deliberately prevented traders from buying rice directly from Bulog.

Buwas said that Bulog sells rice for IDR 8,300 per kg, so the rice should be sold at the most expensive price to consumers according to the highest retail price (HET) of IDR 9,400.

However, sellers who are prevented from buying rice from Bulog must buy rice from unscrupulous persons at prices above IDR 8,300 per kg. This makes prices at the consumer level expensive.

Even though market operations for the distribution of government rice reserves or CBP this month have almost doubled compared to January 2022, rice price keep crawling up.

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Budi said, the increase in rice prices was caused by individuals who wanted to profit from imported rice. On the other hand, traders argue that the price of rice has risen because Bulog has not channeled its import reserves.

Reported from Compass DailySunday (22/1/2023), Budi said, there were a number of people who wanted to profit from the imported rice sold by Bulog for IDR 8,300 per kg.

Because the broken grade of imported rice is 5 percent or classified as premium quality, he said, some want to sell it at Rp 11,000-Rp 12,000 per kg.

He also received reports that rice traders had to buy CBP for market operations from these individuals.

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“As a result, traders say they buy rice at high prices,” he said during a press conference in Jakarta.

With the selling price of Bulog rice at IDR 8,300 per kg, CBP’s market operations are expected to reduce medium rice prices to a reference position in accordance with Minister of Trade Regulation Number 57 of 2017 concerning Determination of the Highest Retail Price for Rice.

The regulation states that the HET for medium rice is Rp. 9,350-Rp. 10,250 per kg, depending on the region.

In order to avoid this modus operandi, Budi asked rice traders to buy rice directly from Bulog. The state-owned company will release it in any amount as long as there is a guarantee that the rice will reduce the price to the HET position.

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Specifically, he appealed to 700 rice traders in Jakarta to buy directly from Bulog. He added, if there were Bulog employees who were involved with these persons, he would fire them.

In terms of stock, Budi said Bulog was ready to distribute up to 500,000-600,000 tons of CBP during January-February 2023. He also didn’t mind if the current stock was used up so that Bulog could absorb it during this year’s main harvest.

Data from Bulog shows that CBP managed by Bulog as of Friday (20/1/2023) reached 656,535 tons. The amount of imported rice in warehouses is around 180,552 tons.

Meanwhile, the realization of CBP distribution for market operations was 110,478 tons. When compared, CBP distribution throughout January 2022 was 66,073.49 tons.

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By March 2023, Budi hopes that Bulog can absorb up to 1 million tonnes of domestic rice. The harvest in March-June 2023 is the basis for Bulog to meet the managed rice stock target of 2.4 million tons.

This news was previously published in the Kompas Daily entitled “Rice Prices Still High, Bulog Accuses Persons of Taking Profit”.

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