This is the reason why the price of cooking oil in Malaysia is only Rp 8,500 per Kg

KOMPAS.com – cooking oil price is increasing drastically in several areas in Indonesia. This happened after the government officially revoked the regulation on the highest retail price (HET) for packaged cooking oil.

In some modern retail, cooking oil price 2 liter packaging costs almost Rp. 50,000. Interestingly, after the HET is not valid, cooking oil is now starting to fill the shelves that were previously empty in a number of modern retailers.

For comparison, what is the price of oil in neighboring countries Malaysia which is also the largest palm oil producer in the world?

The Malaysian government itself imposes HET for several basic necessities sold in the market, one of which is cooking oil, as cooking oil in the neighboring country.

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Quoted from the official website of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP), the Malaysian government sets the price of cooking oil in Malaysia, for simple packaging is Ringgit Malaysia (RM) 2.5 or equivalent to Rp 8,500 (exchange rate Rp 3,400) per kilogram.

It should be noted that in the Malaysian market, cooking oil is sold in kilograms, not liters as used by retailers in Indonesia. By calculating the density of cooking oil, 1 liter of cooking oil is around 0.9 kg.

The low price of cooking oil in Malaysia cannot be separated from subsidies from the government through the Cooking Oil Stabilization Scheme (COSS). This cooking oil is packed in plastic polybag simple.

Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP), Datuk Rosol Wahid said, with the price set by the government, traders can still get a profit margin.

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“The price of subsidized cooking oil in 1 package containing 1 kilogram is only sold for RM 2.5. They (traders) are certain to benefit,” said Rosol Wahid, quoted from Sinar Harian Malaysia.

The total cooking oil subsidy disbursed by the Malaysian government is RM 1.9 billion or Rp 6.48 trillion this year. Even so, the Malaysian government admits that the COSS program still needs a lot of improvement, especially in terms of supervision.

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