Police press charges against 'hoarders'

Police press charges against 'hoarders'

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City police are filing criminal charges against owners of several
gasoline stations here for deliberately stopping their operations
amid the fuel rush ahead of the price hike announcement.

City police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said on Friday that
he had ordered all precinct and subprecinct chiefs in the Greater
Jakarta area to complete case files against gas station owners
hoarding fuel.

"We have sealed several gas stations and are questioning their
owners as we have evidence that they closed their premises even
though they still had plenty of stock," he said.

Law No. 22/2002 on oil and gas carries a maximum sentence of
six years for hoarders.

At least five gas stations were sealed by police on Thursday
and Friday.

A gas station on Jl. Ampera Raya in South Jakarta was sealed
on Thursday afternoon, and its manager, identified as A, 37, and
owner, identified as Arh, were being questioned by police.

Residents, who had seen a fuel truck filling the gas station,
reported to the police when the operator of the gas station said
that they had run out of stock and refused to sell fuel.

Police then checked and found that they still had 9,000 liters
of Premium.

Three gas stations in Tebet, Lenteng Agung and Jagakarsa, all
in South Jakarta, and one in Tangerang, Banten province were also
sealed off for the same reason.

Firman said that some gas stations told customers that they
had run out of fuel when in fact they had pumped out the fuel and
stored it elsewhere to be resold later at higher prices.

He said that they had strong evidence on the hoarding activity
as two police officers were stationed at each gas station, while
motorists had been actively reporting violations.

"When people complained that certain gas stations had closed
their operations because of supply shortages, we called Pertamina
to send more fuel. But when Pertamina told us that they had sent
enough fuel, we sealed off the gas station right away and
questioned the operator and the owner," Firman said.

While police were taking firm actions against gas stations,
they appeared to have done little to go after small-time hoarders
who had reportedly stockpiled fuel since the government announced
earlier this month that it would raise fuel prices by up to 80
percent.

Firman said police and Pertamina would check the stocks at
each gas station to find out how many liters they had left to
determine how much money they must pay to the state oil company.

"So, it is useless for gas stations to hoard fuel as we will
check their stocks. They must pay according to the new price for
the remaining stock," Firman said.

He said that as police were now concentrating on securing
protest tallies against the fuel price hike, they expected to
complete the case files after Oct. 2 when protests have receded.

Jakarta Police on Thursday also arrested three men in Marunda
in North Jakarta for illegally transferring fuel from Cepu in
Central Java to the capital.

They confiscated two ships containing a total of 47,000 liters
of Premium and diesel oil.