Private sector not ready to begin importing wheat

Private sector not ready to begin importing wheat

JAKARTA (JP): The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) said
yesterday that it would still import wheat after government
subsidies to the commodity are lifted in October.

Bulog's spokesman Masjkur Sulaiman said the agency would
continue to import wheat because private companies would not be
ready to take over the task within the next three months.

"Bulog's involvement in wheat procurement will depend on the
private sector's readiness to take over the job," Masjkur told
The Jakarta Post. The agency's imports are essential to ensure
price stability, he added.

Last week, Bulog chairman Beddu Amang said the agency would
stop importing wheat and wheat flour in October after the
government ended subsidies to the commodities.

He said thereafter the private sector alone would import
wheat, leaving the agency to concentrate on importing rice and
sugar.

He pledged the agency would not lobby the government to
prolong the subsidies, which according to the program of reform
agreed to with the IMF should come to an end in October.

Beddu said that private companies were already allowed to
import wheat and wheat flour directly but added they had so far
been reluctant to do so.

He said the agency would import 4.25 million tons of wheat in
the 1998/1999 fiscal year.

Bulog lost its monopoly to import and distribute wheat, wheat
flour, soybeans, garlic and sugar in February under the terms of
the IMF reform agreement.

But the supplementary memorandum signed in June restored the
agency's import and distribution role and extended subsidies on
all of the commodities in an attempt to lessen the impact of the
economic crisis on the nation's poor. (gis)