REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEKASI -- The police's Food Task Force has sealed PT Indo Beras Unggul, a rice milling plant in Kedungwaringin, Bekasi District, West Java, on grounds of committing business fraud and seized 1,161 tons of rice.
The plant, a subsidiary of PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food Tbk, was raided on late Thursday (July 20) in the presence of Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian and Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman.
"We laud the fast move of the task force. Within two weeks, they have investigated rice distribution at the middleman level, based on information from the Agriculture Ministry and Trade Ministry," Karnavian noted.
The plant, which processed farmers' unhusked rice into rice using modern machinery, was allegedly cheating consumers by selling medium-quality rice at a premium price.
The plant has also falsified information on the product's nutritional content on its label.
"For instance, the carbohydrate content mentioned on its label is premium level (25 percent). However, after we checked them, it was medium-quality rice. This is aimed at increasing the selling price. The original price is only Rp nine thousand per kg, but they packed and labeled them as premium rice and sold them at Rp20 thousand per kg," he stated.
The company has allegedly caused financial losses worth trillions of rupiah to the state.
"These middlemen in Indonesia could earn a huge sum of money reaching up to Rp400 trillion," the police chief added.
"We will investigate this, and we will name the suspects. We will use the consumer law and section 382 of the Criminal Code," Karnavian said.
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