Padang, West Sumatra (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Consumer Institute (YLKI) for West Sumatra called on the regional government to keep watch on speculators so that they would not hoard fuels before prices were increased next month.

"There is enough time for speculators to hoard fuels before their prices are effectively increased next April. This gives a chance to traders to hoard fuels for their unilateral profit," YLKI Chariman for West Sumatra, Dahnil Aswad said here on Monday.

He said that the government needed to have a means to prevent speculative buying of fuel by traders.

Dahnil said the government should also pay attention to the upward trend of basic necessities` prices which consumers had begun to complain about.

Without control by the regional government traders would raise prices with their several reasons, Dahnil said adding that this should not necessarily happen if the fuel oil prices were increased soon.

The government is planning to raise the price of subsidized fuel oil on April 1 and has submitted two options to the House of Representatives (DPR). In the first proposal, the government seeks to raise the price of subsidized premium gasoline from Rp4,500 to Rp6,000 per liter and diesel oil from Rp4,500 to Rp6,000 per liter.
(Uu.A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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