Fuel smuggling continues despite strict punishment threat

Fuel hoarding and smuggling activities continue in many parts of the country despite the government's threat to impose a harsh punishment against those involved in the illegal sales of the fuel, kompas reported on friday.

Kompas reported Friday, a number of fuel smuggling attempts have been foiled in several parts of the country. Six people including three Papua New Guinea (PNG) residents were apprehended in Papua by the Indonesian navy when they tried to smuggle about 600 liters of diesel oil by a speedboat to PNG.

A similar smuggling attempt was also foiled by the police in South Sumtara. Three men were seized when they tried to smuggle fuel through the Musi river to Bangka island.

A number of people have been also seized for hoarding a large volume of fuel in many parts of the country, including Papua and South Sumatra. The people involved in hoarding activities bought the oil from Pertamina's fuel stations and sold them to industries to take the advantage of the price difference.

The prices of fuel sold to industries are much higher than those sold in the retail fuel stations because the fuel subsidy in the latter products. This has encouraged widespread of smuggling activities. (*)