The demand for sea sand continues to increase, driven by the growth of infrastructure, construction, and the glass and solar panel industries.

There is another wave of layoffs in the textile industry. This is the result of poor coordination between ministries when drawing up regulations.

The price of garlic continues to soar as a result of a shortage of supplies. This is further evidence of the problems caused by the import quota system.

The slow issuance of import permits is causing the price of garlic to skyrocket. The government is retaining the RIPH requirements for garlic imports.

The government repeatedly changes the regulations for importing goods. Special provisions are made only when public protests occur.

The government modified beef import regulations several times. Some led to instances of bribery and corruption.

The Indonesian Ombudsman found irregularities in the issuing of import permits for garlic. An arena for quota brokers to play their games.

Importers complain to the Ombudsman about sluggish garlic permits. There are suspicions of backhanded fees in order to get quotas.

The government issues quota and mandatory planting to achieve self-sufficiency in garlic. Local production never meets the required numbers.

The government again revises its domestic market obligation regulation. The rule has been ineffective in guaranteeing the supply of cheap cooking oil.

The government’s promised one-price cooking oil subsidy has not been paid, thanks to late verification and differences in opinion.

Refined sugar has become scarce again ahead of the year-end because the government was slow to issue import permits. The stock of raw materials for the food and beverage industry is running low.

The Attorney General’s Office names the Director-General of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Trade and three people in the palm oil business as corruption suspects related to the crude palm oil export. They are alleged of creating a cooking oil cartel.

The spike in the price of cooking oil forces the government to perform acrobatics. Three policies were issued in a short time.

Cartoon: Yuyun Nurrachman

The increasing price of feed further makes things difficult for laying hen farmers, who have been suffering losses from the plummeting price of eggs. There are irregularities in the government’s data.

The letter of exemption from the trade ministry, owned by a number of steel importers, raised suspicions. Looking into several old government projects, the letter is suspected to have been used as cover-up allowing dozens of containers of steel to be imported without verification.