Lawyer criticizes bankruptcy fee
JAKARTA (JP): A corporate lawyer has criticized a justice ministry decision to impose a 3 percent commission fee for administrators and a 2 percent fee for curators in bankruptcy cases.
Lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea of Makarim and Taira S law firm said on Monday that a Sept. 22 Ministry of Justice decree on administrator and curator fees could harm the future operations of the commercial court.
"The commission fees imposed by the ministerial decree are just too high," he told The Jakarta Post after a court hearing pitting American Express Bank and cocoa producer PT Davomas Abadi on Monday.
He said the high fees would further burden financially troubled debtors taken to court by creditors or their business partners.
The decree requires that administrators, in charge of debtors' assets following court suspension of payment orders, be paid a maximum of 3 percent of debtors' assets.
Curators, or receivers who manage debtor assets after bankruptcy is declared, are to receive a maximum of 2 percent of debtors' total assets.
Hotman said the fees should not be based on a percentage of debtors' assets but on their working hours, as was done in many developed countries.
The regulation was issued last week following a controversial decision to grant a 5 percent commission fee to the administrator of PT Karabha Digdaya's assets in its court case.
The decision will allow the administrator of Karabha's assets to take a Rp 65 billion commission of the company's Rp 1.3 trillion in total assets, much more than the Rp 15.3 billion the company owed to the plaintiffs.
Davomas
In a later development, the Jakarta Commercial Court approved on Monday a request by publicly listed cocoa producer PT Davomas Abadi to temporarily suspend the payment of its US$3 million in promissory notes owed to American Express Bank.
Hotman, representing American Express, said the law required the plaintiff and the defendant to attempt a renegotiation of the debt within 45 days.
"We expect there will a be friendly resolution to our case," he told reporters after the hearing.
Presiding judge Ch. Kristi Purnami Wulan also appointed Untung Haridjadi as the supervisory judge and William Eduard Daniel as the administrator to safeguard the debtor's assets during the payment suspension period.
She did not, however, ruled out the commission fee for the administrator.
The country's ambitious new bankruptcy law, which came into effect on Aug. 20, allows a defendant to file for a payment suspension order to the court.
The commercial court must approve a temporary suspension, valid for 45 days, and appoint a supervisory judge and an administrator to safeguard the debtor's assets. (aly)