Lubricants must have registration numbers: Govt

JAKARTA (JP): The government said on Thursday that all lubricants sold in the country should have registration numbers starting as of Oct. 1, to protect consumers.

Secretary to the director general of oil and gas at the Ministry of Mines and Energy Wiranto Wiromartono said the policy was needed to protect consumers from the entry of questionable oil-based imported products once the Asian Free Trade Area (Afta) became effective in 2003.

"This is also needed to reduce the circulation of fake lubricants that thus far has been difficult to control," Wiranto was quoted as saying by Antara news agency, on the sidelines of a workshop to publicize the new policy.

State oil and gas company Pertamina currently holds the monopoly rights over oil-based lubricant products.

He said that under the policy, lubricant products without registration numbers could not be sold and must be recalled from the market.

To obtain the registration number, he said, producers of lubricants could register their products at the directorate general of oil and gas.

Wiranto further said that the lubricant products would undergo several procedures before obtaining a number, including laboratory tests by the Institute of Oil and Gas (Lemigas).

To avoid unnecessary concern from the public, he urged that producers themselves withdraw products that had no registration numbers.

He said that out of hundreds of lubricant products in the domestic market, only 65 producers have registered their products at his office, while only 21 brands actually owned registration numbers.

Wiranto said that the government also wanted clear regulations to protect local lubricant producers from a flood of foreign oil- based lubricant products.

"We better have regulation, because if we open the oil-based lubricant market, which Pertamina now owns, there'll be plenty of domestic and foreign investors interested," he explained.

Sharing Wiranto's view, Chairman of the Indonesian Lubricants Association (Aspelindo) A.P. Batubara said the new policy would help local producers compete against foreign producers.

"This policy is not market protection, but it simply clarifies the rules of the game, while also protecting Indonesian consumers," he said.

Batubara, who is also president of Penzoil producer PT Wiraswasta Gemilang Indonesia, added that local lubricant producers were capable of meeting domestic demands.

He said that the producers' production capacity was some 500,000 tons of lubricants per year, whereas local demand was only 400,000 tons.(bkm)