TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Former Secretary of State-Owned Enterprises Ministry (SOEs), Said Didu, said the government must concern to the companies’ debts. Said, who is now an observer, said the ministry should take a break in putting massive assignment to state firms considering the current total debt of SOEs reached more than Rp4,800 trillion.
"It’s actually reasonable, but big assignments must affect the higher default risk," said Said on Monday, July 30. He referred to the financial firm of the gas and oil company Pertamina that was troubled due to many tasks, starting from suppressing the fuel price, distributing fuel to all regions at different costs, to constructing refineries.
As a result, SOE Minister Rini Soemarno issued a letter asking Pertamina to share assets with private parties. Let alone a number of projects such as toll roads construction since 2015. Hutama Karya in July last year seek government assurances on its debt to finance the Trans Sumatra Pekanbaru-Dumai toll road with a total project worth Rp16 trillion.
The SOE's debt was revealed in the meeting held by SOE Ministry with the parliament last week. In 2017, SOEs accumulated Rp4,830 trillion of debt in which Rp3,147 trillion was debt in the financial services sector, while the remaining Rp1,633 trillion were withdrawn by non-financial SOEs.
The burden kept worsening since the government pegged this year’s dividend to Rp210 trillion. As per May 2018, SOEs had paid Rp22 trillion. "Amid many big tasks and the uncertainty of the exchange rate, the government is better to lower the number of dividends," said the economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance Bhima Yudhistira.
The ministry's deputy of business restructuring and development, Aloysius Kiik Ro, said the SOE's debt was actually totaling Rp453 trillion. "The total of SOE debt is only 10 percent of the whole foreign debt," said Aloy, adding that it was still in a safe state, compared to the nearly Rp7,000 trillion assets.
Meanwhile, the House’s Commission VI deputy speaker Azam Azman Natawijaya said the discussion on the matter was still afoot among the parliament with the government. According to him, the government was required to disclose the plan on the risk management regarding the debt payment particularly its deadlines and its value concerning the declining rupiah. "If I’m not mistaken, the hedging rate of SOEs is below 30 percent," Azam added.
ANDI IBNU
