DPR passes Government Proposal to Inject Rp1.5 Trillion
17 September 2014 12:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR) has passed a government proposal to inject Rp1.5 trillion of liquidity from the 2015 State Budget (APBN) to state-owned shipbuilding company PAL Indonesia.
The proposal has been approved after a meeting of the Commission VI members, led by Airlangga Hartarto as the commission's chief and State-Owned Enterprises (SoE) Minister Dahlan Iskan at the DPR Complex in Jakarta yesterday.
According to Airlangga, the decision will be then passed on the DPR's budget committee, who will scrutinise the budget to ensure it was in-line with the relevant agreeing to disburse the funds.
In the proposal, the cash injection is to be used by PAL Indonesia to prepare its facilities and human resources, as well as to fund their procurement of the necessary machineries which will allow them to build submarines.
The preparation for the submarine-building infrastructure was tasked by the Committee for Defence Industry Policy, which saw the need for the locally-built submarines.
SoE Minister Dahlan Iskan has welcomed the decision to inject funds into PAL Indonesia by Commission VI of the DPR, which he hopes would be beneficial for the development and growth of the state-owned enterprise.
According to Dahlan, Indonesia's dependence on primary weapons systems imports could be reduced if Indonesia has the necessary infrastructures to build its' own submarines. Furthermore, moving the production and maintenance of submarines within Indonesia will create a multiplier effect - not only will it reduce the strain on the APBN, as it may also contribute to Indonesia's economic growth by creating more job opportunities.
In the occasion, Commission VI has yet to approve the proposal to inject Rp5.23 trillion from the APBN to state-owned electricity company PT PLN. Meanwhile, the Commission passed a proposal to extend the state oil-and-gas company (Pertamina) SubLoan Agreement (SLA) - worth Rp677.55 billion to support the development of geothermal power as an environmentally friendly, alternative energy source.
ANTARA | Royke Sinaga | Ruslan Burhani
