Unfair business charge against Caltex to be decided on October 15

The anti-monopoly commission will decide on October 15 whether or not Caltex Pasific Indonesia is involved in an unfair business practices especially related to the tender of its pipeline projects, Satunet reported on Tuesday.

Syamsul Maarif, the vice president of the anti-monopoly commission, told the online news provider on Monday that the oil giant was being investigated to find out if the tender of its pipeline projects was against the newly introduced anti-monopoly law.

According to data provided by the plaintiff, the company had allegedly breached the anti-monopoly law. "If the tender involved unfair practices, it would be cancelled," he added.

The plaintiff had complained that the alleged unfair practice carried out by Caltex had caused a disadvantage to small and medium-scale companies because the bidding system carried out by the oil giant only favored big players.

Syamsul said that in addition to Caltex, the commission is also currently probing several other companies including Inkopti cooperative, Indomart retail chain and Jamsostek social insurance company.

He said that Inkopti was charged with selling soybean at below market prices, Indomart with selling only the products produced by its parent company Indofood while Jamsostek with holding a monopoly in the workers' social insurance.

Several other companies such as state electricity company PLN and state owned oil company Pertamina might have also breached the anti-monopoly law. The two companies hold the exclusive rights respectively in the distribution of electricity and fuel to the people. (*)