Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – The government expressed confidence on Tuesday that will meet the target for the debt relief program despite a slow start in the first half of the year.

Indonesia has launched a debt relief program to slash outstanding state receivables. The debt relief targets students and hospital patients, among others.

Under this program, students and hospital patients can enjoy an 80 percent waiver of their debts. A similar mechanism applies to debtors with state receivables of up to Rp 8 million (around $532.8).

This year, the debt relief program aims to have 1,600 of the so-called case files of state receivables (BKPN) paid off.

The BKPN is a document that compiles files related to outstanding state receivables. A single BKPN usually represents one student or patient.

However, Finance Ministry data shows that the government has only seen 486 case files paid as of June 19. This has helped lower Rp 76.36 billion in outstanding state receivables.

"Things are usually slow at the beginning, but we will work towards that target in the second semester. But there is nothing to worry about. The pattern has always been like this [over the past years]," Encep Sudarwan, a senior official at the Finance Ministry, told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"We are targeting to have 1,600 case files of state receivables paid off this year. But if possible, we will aim to achieve twofold the target," Encep said.

Only two of the paid 486 case files were student tuition fees. About 162 case files came from hospital patients, while 139 others are debtors with state receivables of less than Rp 8 million.

Last year, the debt relief program had 2,328 case files paid off. This was much higher than the targeted 1,500 BKPN dossiers. The 2022 debt relief program has slashed Rp 88.73 billion in outstanding state receivables.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/govt-optimistic-about-debt-relief-target-despite-slow-star