Golkar Appreciates Bahlil's Move to Delay Minerba PNBP Tariff

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — The recent pressure on the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar is deemed to require a comprehensive response from all national economic authorities. Golkar Party’s Deputy Chairman for Economic Policy, Abdul Rahman Farisi, encouraged the government to use this situation as an opportunity to strengthen Indonesia’s economic structure from within. “We must address this economic development calmly, carefully, and wisely, both from a monetary and fiscal perspective,” he emphasised on Wednesday (13/5/2026). The rupiah has weakened by 5.63% year-on-year, hovering around Rp17,500 per US dollar—a pressure that, according to Abdul Rahman, needs to be tackled with measured policies. Abdul Rahman also urged Bank Indonesia to continue optimising its monetary policy instruments to maintain market confidence in the rupiah. “For the monetary authority, this is an important policy target, namely how to make efforts to strengthen the rupiah again, whether through selling dollars or buying rupiah so that the exchange rate can be corrected,” said Abdul Rahman, who once lectured at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Hasanuddin University. From a fiscal perspective, he reminded of the importance of anticipating the impact of the rupiah’s weakening on the 2026 state budget macro assumptions, especially given warnings from economists about the potential for increased pressure on the budget deficit due to the rupiah’s depreciation and oil price fluctuations. “The government must carefully calculate the influence of the rupiah’s weakening on state revenues and the budget balance. The 2026 State Budget Macro Assumption is Rp16,500 per US dollar. Therefore, the government needs to have various scenarios, both the main scenario and contingency plans,” he stated.