T

he Jakarta Police on Thursday raided an illegal liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) refilling business in Bekasi, West Java.

Jakarta Police special crime director Sr. Comr. Mujiono said that the business refilled 12-kilogram and 50-kilogram non-subsidized canisters with gas taken from three-kilogram subsidized canisters.

'€œThis is an illegal operation. Our society as consumers and our country as the subsidy giver are the ones who suffer the loss from this operation,'€ he told reporters at the raided site in Bekasi on Thursday.

He added that the police would still need to check whether customers got what they thought they were paying for when buying from the illegal refilling service.

'€œThey may have filled the canisters with less than the normal content because they want to get as much profit as possible,'€ he said, adding that the business had so far only distributed its products around Bekasi.

Mujiono said that the police had named the business owner, identified as B, a suspect and arrested 19 workers at the business.

'€œWe are still questioning the 19 workers. They may or may not become suspects,'€ he said.

He further said that the police had also confiscated 11 cars used to distribute refilled canisters and 2,315 three-kilogram canisters, 447 12-kilogram canisters and 60 50-kilogram canisters.

He said that according to the suspect the business had only been in operation for four days, but the police would still carry out further investigation to confirm the suspect'€™s confession.

According to Mujiono, the suspect would be charged with Article 62 of the Consumer Protection Law and Article 53 of the Oil and Natural Gas Law and could face over five years behind bars.

Mujiono reminded legal LPG sellers to be wary of customers who bought gas in large amounts.

'€œSubsidized gas is normally used by families and each of them normally uses only one canister. Sellers should be suspicious of people who buy the subsidized gas in large amounts,'€ he explained.

When asked about whether someone from state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina had helped the suspect obtain the subsidized gas, Mujiono said that police were still investigating the case and could not come to hasty conclusions.

Meanwhile, one of the workers, identified as T, 25, said that he did not know that the business and its activities were illegal. He said he was paid Rp 100,000 (US$7.30) per day to work there.

Separately, Mirtono, subdistrict head of Wonosari, where the illegal business operated, said that he did not know the business existed in the area, which was a garbage dump. He said the area belonged to the Bekasi administration and the business did not have a land use permit.

'€œI did not know there was an illegal business here. Not far from here there is a gas company so when the business'€™ vehicles went in and out of the business complex we did not suspect them because we thought they were the company'€™s vehicles,'€ he explained.

Mirtono said that employees of the operation were not locals. (saf)