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.