PRESIDENTIAL REGULATION 71/2015: GOVERNMENT’S GUARANTEE ON AVAILABILITY OF PRIMARY NEEDS

Presidential Regulation Number 71 of 2015 on Stipulation of Price and Storing of Primary Needs and Important Goods (“Perpres 71/2015”) sets out rules to guarantee the availability and stabilize the price of goods distributed in the market to deal with scarcity and price fluctuation.

Perpres 71/2015 also contains rules on prohibition to store primary materials and important goods in warehouse during scarcity of goods, price fluctuation, during the constraints of trade traffic.

The types of primary materials covered in the regulation are agricultural produce (rice, soybean as primary materials of fermented soybean cake and tofu, chili, and onion), industrial produce (sugar, cooking oil, and wheat flour), as well as farm and fisheries produce (beef meat, chicken meat, chicken egg, and fresh fish, namely milkfish, mackerel, or swordfish/tuna/skipjack).

Primary goods shall meet the following standards, namely

(i) in accordance to SNI (Indonesian National Standard) as necessary;

(ii) safe to consume;

(iii) hygiene and sanitized;

(iv) not contaminated with hazardous and poisonous materials.

When there is scarcity of goods, price fluctuation, and/or constraints on trade traffic, primary goods and/or important goods are prohibited to be stored in warehouse in an unreasonable quantity, for instance exceeding the stock or supply of the distributed goods, to fulfill market with maximum period of 3 (three) months, based on average record on monthly sales under normal condition.

The central government shall guarantee supply and price stabilization of primary goods by stipulating a special price
in the periods prior to, during and after national religious days, and/or during a price fluctuation situation, and when there is disruption of supply or when the price is higher or lower than the reference price stipulated by the government in certain condition that may disrupt national trade activity. The government, in this case the Minister of Trade, could determine highest retail price in the event of market operation be it partially or wholly for primary goods.

-TWK-