Fuel smuggling rampant in Mahakam River

The activity of smuggling heavily-subsidized fuel particularly kerosene out the country through the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan has become rampant and involves certain government and security officials, according to the local Kaltim Post daily.

The paper said that the authorities had failed to curb the smuggling activity, and because of frustration the authorities were blaming each other.

The paper said that every time that the authorities were planning to catch the smugglers in action, certain officials had leaked the plan to the smugglers.

It said that the rampant kerosene smuggling had caused the people to suffer because of the disappearance of the commodity from the local market.

Kaltim Post reported earlier on Tuesday that the office of the state-owned oil and gas company had just taken disciplinary action against two sub-distributors accused of smuggling kerosene. The paper quoted a Pertamina official as saying that no distributor agent had been involved in the smuggling. (*)