Budi Sutrisno, Jakarta – After Bank Indonesia (BI) issued a special commemorative Rp 75,000 (US$5.08) bill on Monday, enthusiastic citizens stormed to the central bank's website to take their share of the available quota.
By Tuesday morning, the appointment slots available at pintar.bi.go.id for the public to exchange their money with the new bill at the BI headquarters in Central Jakarta and BI representative offices across Java were all full up until Sept. 3.
"Early this morning I accessed the website to register for the exchange at the Semarang branch office [in Central Java] but the quota was full," father of two Toni Rendra told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
"In practical terms, my wife will probably need [the Rp 75,000 bill] the most since she depends a lot on bills when shopping at traditional markets," he added.
The exchange schedule after Sept. 3 is not yet accessible, but citizens wishing to purchase the special bill – issued to commemorate Indonesia's 75th Independence Day – still have other opportunities since the registration process is opening gradually in two stages.
The first stage is from Monday at 3 p.m. until Sept. 30. The places of exchange include the BI headquarters and 45 representative offices in all provinces.
The second stage is from Oct. 1 until completion. The exchange will be available at the BI headquarters and representative offices, as well as designated banks.
BI Deputy Governor Rosmaya Hadi said in a press conference on Tuesday that as many as 68,051 citizens had registered for the exchange via the website, which is equivalent to 97 percent of the quota available for the first 10 days of exchange.
She said the remaining 3 percent was available at representative offices in the provinces of Papua, West Papua and Gorontalo as well in Sibolga in North Sumatra, Lhoksemauwe in Aceh, Ternate in North Maluku and Mamuju in West Sulawesi.
Rosmaya said BI would provide a quota of 300 of the Rp 75,000 bills per day for the BI headquarters and 150 bills per day for each representative office.
The central bank, she added, deliberately divided up the exchange schedules with a limited number of bills in each period so that people would not flock to exchange centers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have calculated how [the citizens] should exchange [the money], the schedule, the duration, so we can still follow COVID-19 protocols," Rosmaya said.
She acknowledged the public's enthusiasm for the commemorative bill since its launch, saying that BI would reevaluate the exchange timelines.
BI has set a limit of one bill per citizen. In total, it will release 75 million of the Rp 75,000 bills.