Firms asked to report debts

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia has issued a ruling requiring all local companies and institutions to report their foreign debts to the central bank.

According to the new ruling, companies and institutions which fail to report their foreign debts on time will be fined Rp 100,000 per day of delay.

If the companies or institutions do not report their foreign debts within six months after the debts have been incurred, they will have to pay a fine of 1 percent of their total debt to the central bank, in addition to the daily fine.

If a report is incorrect or incomplete, the company or institution concerned will have to pay a fine of Rp 1,000,000, the central bank said.

The requirement to report foreign debts was previously contained in Presidential Decree No. 137/2000, which was rescinded last month, following the enactment of the new Capital Flows and Exchange Rate Law.(hen)