Court set to rule on Sumi Asih next week

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Commercial Court will decide next week whether or not to accept the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency's (IBRA) bankruptcy claim against palm oil processor PT Sumi Asih.

"We will study the case and issue the verdict next Thursday," presiding judge I Gde Nyoman Putra told the courtroom.

IBRA filed a bankruptcy suit against Sumi Asih in late March for overdue debts, as claimed by IBRA, of Rp 25 billion and US$6.2 million.

Sumi Asih disputed the accuracy of the amount of unpaid debts claimed by IBRA and charged the agency with being inconsistent in stating the amount of debts Sumi Asih owed.

The lawyer representing Sumi Asih, Hotman Paris Hutapea, cited as an example the amount of unpaid debts officially acknowledged by IBRA between March and November 1998 was $1.4 million and Rp 3.5 billion, much less than the above.

Hotman also said Sumi Asih had transferred some money to repay part of its debts in late 1998 and early 1999, but to the bank account of an individual instead of to IBRA's official bank account.

IBRA's lawyer, Kitty Sugondo Kramadibrata, said the changing amount of debts was natural and logical considering that when debts were not paid on time they would incur interest and therefore increase.

"Besides, the essence of a bankruptcy suit is the existence of a matured and unpaid debt, and two or more creditors," she said.

Concerning the different amount of debts claimed by the two parties, she said, it could be taken care of later during the verification process which would be mediated by the court.

Besides Sumi Asih, IBRA brought two other debtors to the commercial court, namely, trading firms A Latief Corporation which owes the agency some $16.93 million in bad debts and diversified PT Ometraco Corporation with $53.18 million in debt.

IBRA requested "ad hoc" judges to examine all the above three bankruptcy cases, but was turned down as these independent judges -- recruited from outside the court -- were not officially installed yet by the government. (udi)