Government appointed antimonopoly body gets down to business
JAKARTA (JP): A government appointed antimonopoly commission announced on Tuesday the launch of three investigations, as a wide-ranging law on unfair business practices came into effect.
Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) member Didiek J. Rachbini said after hearing public complaints it would investigate possible monopolistic practices in retail chain Indomart; American oil and gas company PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia; and a foreign tempeh and tofu importer.
Indomart owner PT Indomarco has been accused of only selling products from its parent company, the giant food producer Indofood.
The complainants said Indomart shops could potentially kill small traders located within 50 meters of one.
Caltex, which operates Indonesia's biggest oil field in Riau, was accused of unfair business practices when awarding contracts for a pipeline project.
The works were tendered as one package instead of several projects, effectively disqualifying small contractors, commission vice chairman Syamsul Maarif alleged.
The third case is based on a complaint from the Indonesian Tofu and Tempeh Cooperative (Inkopti), which has accused a foreign soybean company of practicing price discrimination to undercut local producers.
The commission has set up a panel of three members for each of the three cases, Syamsul said.
By regulation, the commission has 30 days from the time a complaint is received to investigate and determine if there is a valid case, if so, it must set up a panel. The panel has 60 days to investigate, extendible up to 90 days, before it makes a decision.
"The commission's decision is legally binding. They (companies or individuals) can appeal to the Supreme Court if they are not happy with it," Syamsul said.
The commission, formed by President Abdurrahman Wahid in June in compliance with a 1999 law on antimonopoly and unfair competition, has been assigned to monitor the implementation of provisions of the new legislation.
The law was passed by the House of Representatives in February l999 and signed into law by then president B.J. Habibie a month later.
It forbids individual companies from controlling more than 50 percent of a domestic market, and two or three companies from controlling a combined 75 percent of one.
It also forbids practices of oligopoly, monopsony, price fixing, price discrimination, cartel, geographical designations of markets by suppliers, resale price maintenance and collusion in bidding.
A person or a company who is found guilty will face fines of between Rp 1 billion (US$120,000) and Rp 100 billion and jail terms of between three and six months.
The commission has eleven members. Bambang Purnomo, an advisor to the minister of industry and trade, is its chairman.
Syamsul Maarif is a lawyer and consultant with the World Bank in Jakarta while Didiek is an economist at the University of Indonesia.
The commission's other members are Tadjudin Noersaid, Faisal H. Basri, Nabiel Makarim, Moh. Iqbal, Pande Raja Silalahi, Soy Martua Pardede, Erwin Syahril and Sutrisno Iwantono. (02)