Steps to Lower Cooking Oil Prices
The government is planning steps to ensure that domestic cooking oil prices ease by 10% to 15% in the next few weeks, a senior government official said on Wednesday (5/9/07).
"We cannot afford cooking oil prices to remain high as our main festival season of Ramadhan and Idul Fitri is approaching," Djoko Said Damardjati, Director General of Processing and Marketing at the Agriculture Department, told Reuters on the sidelines of a regional grains conference in Perth.
The previous week, the government introduced a new palm oil export scheme in a fresh bid to contain soaring cooking oil prices.
Under the new tax scheme, the government will set the export tax for crude palm oil at 10% if international prices are above $850 a ton, at 7.5% if prices are between $750 and $849 a ton and 5% if international prices are between $650 and $749 a ton.
In a bid to ensure affordable prices of cooking oil, the government has also allocated Rp325 billion ($34.57 million) to subsidize cooking oil for the poor.
The subsidized cooking oil will be sold to low-income families in special markets for three months, starting during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan in the middle of September and after the Idul Fitri festival in October.
"We cannot afford cooking oil prices to remain high as our main festival season of Ramadhan and Idul Fitri is approaching," Djoko Said Damardjati, Director General of Processing and Marketing at the Agriculture Department, told Reuters on the sidelines of a regional grains conference in Perth.
The previous week, the government introduced a new palm oil export scheme in a fresh bid to contain soaring cooking oil prices.
Under the new tax scheme, the government will set the export tax for crude palm oil at 10% if international prices are above $850 a ton, at 7.5% if prices are between $750 and $849 a ton and 5% if international prices are between $650 and $749 a ton.
In a bid to ensure affordable prices of cooking oil, the government has also allocated Rp325 billion ($34.57 million) to subsidize cooking oil for the poor.
The subsidized cooking oil will be sold to low-income families in special markets for three months, starting during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan in the middle of September and after the Idul Fitri festival in October.