BUPLN to handle Rp 4.3t in bad loans

JAKARTA (JP): The value of the state-owned banks' bad loans transferred to the state receivership agency, BUPLN, exceeded Rp 4.3 trillion (US$1.8 billion) in the last two fiscal years, says a senior official.

BUPLN chairman Adolf Warouw said yesterday that Rp 2.2 trillion of the total funds were transferred to his office in the 1995/96 fiscal year and the other Rp 2.1 trillion in 1994/95.

He said his agency had been able to recoup only Rp 1.4 trillion or around 32 percent of the total bad loans reported by the state-owned banks in the last two fiscal years.

"Around Rp 833 billion of the total was recovered in 1995/96 and the other Rp 574 billion in 1994/95," he told a hearing with House Commission VII for finance, trade and logistics.

The hearing was also attended by Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad and first echelon officials in his ministry.

The bad (totally unpaid) loans granted by state-owned banks dropped to Rp 6.38 trillion as of April from Rp 6.39 trillion as of last December.

The state banks, comprising Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Negara Indonesia 1946, Bank Tabungan Negara, Bank Dagang Negara, Bank Ekspor Impor Indonesia, Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) and Bank Bumi Daya were reported to have removed Rp 4.2 trillion of the bad loans from their balance sheets.

Warouw said yesterday that his office handles only a fraction of the bad loans written off by the state-owned banks as they are also handled by the banks' internal divisions.

The state receivership agency is the government's semijudicial body charged with settling or recovering the bad loans written off by state-owned banks and other state financial institutions. Private banks settle their unpaid loans through the courts. (hen)