Firms submitting financial statements late to be fined

JAKARTA (JP): The Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) will penalize all publicly listed companies which failed to meet the April 30 deadline for submitting their 1997 financial statements.

Bapepam chairman I Putu Gede Ary Suta said yesterday he had no choice but to introduce disciplinary measures because the agency had given companies four months to prepare their balance sheets.

"All publicly listed companies should comply with the existing regulations," he told reporters.

Putu said that should any publicly listed company fail to meet the deadline, it would be obliged to explain the delay.

"If companies cannot meet the deadline, they should give the reasons for the delay," he said, pointing out that no company had lodged an official report stating reasons for delays.

According to capital market regulations, publicly companies are required to submit their half yearly and annual reports to Bapepam and the stock exchanges where they are listed four months after the end of the financial period at the latest.

The deadline for the annual reports which ended in December is April 30.

Companies late in submitting their reports without acceptable excuses will be fined Rp 1 million (US$125) for each day they are late.

The Jakarta Stock Exchange reported Friday that 72 companies, or about 25 percent of the total companies listed on the exchange, had not submitted their 1997 annual financial statements.

The companies late with their reports include Bakrie and Brothers, Bank Danamon, Bank PDFCI, Bank Surya, Bank Tiara Asia, Bank Umum Nasional, Modern Bank, Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI), Barito Pacific Timber, toll-road operator PT Citra Marga Nusaphala Persada and Bukaka Teknik Utama.

The managements of Bank Danamon, Bank PDFCI, Bank Tiara Asia, Bank Umum Nasional, BDNI and Modern Bank have been placed under the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) since early last month as part of the government's efforts the improve the country's ailing banking system.

A JSX director, Felia Salim, said yesterday that the other 215 publicly listed firms had submitted their annual reports before the deadline.

Analysts say the monetary crisis has severely affected the financial performance of most companies in Indonesia, forcing them to suffer losses due to huge foreign exchange losses.

Putu said that though the companies had incurred losses, they should not ignore existing regulations.

"If they lose, that is the risk of doing business. But our (Bapepam) main concern is to enforce every company to stick to existing regulations. That's all,' he said. (aly)