Mar'ie rules out credits for RI aircraft exports
Mar'ie rules out credits for RI aircraft exports
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad categorically rejected yesterday the possibility of providing export credits for foreign buyers of such high-tech products as aircraft from Indonesian companies.
"It is almost impossible for us to provide such a payment scheme. The problem is: where we would get such funds from?," the minister told the Budgetary Commission of the House of Representatives during a hearing yesterday.
Mar'ie made the statements in answer to a question from House member Bambang Warih Koesoemo of the Golkar faction.
Bambang raised several questions about the proposal, made by Minister of Research and Technology, B.J. Habibie, that the government grant export credits to support the sale of Indonesian aircraft.
Golkar has terminated Bambang's position as a member of the House, but his official dismissal as a legislator awaits final endorsement of the House leadership (speakers and vice speakers) and of President Soeharto.
Asked by Bambang when the government would be able to provide such export credits, Mar'ie replied: "It might be possible in the future, but it is impossible right now..."
The minister of finance said he had to make it quite clear that, as things currently stand, the Indonesian economy cannot afford to grant export credits for the sale of products from companies under the supervision of the Agency for the Management of Strategic Industries (BPIS).
"I feel it is sometimes important to make a straight-to-the- point answer," he told the House in relation to the proposal from BPIS Chairman B.J. Habibie that export credit financing be provided to push along the sale of such high-tech products as aircraft.
"Giving an unclear or ambiguous answer could generate false expectations," he said.
He stressed that granting export credits to buyers of products manufactured by BPIS strategic industries, such as CN-235 aircraft, is out of the question at present.
Minister for Research and Technology B.J. Habibie had argued on Monday that the strategic industries under his supervision, including the Bandung-based IPTN aircraft producer and the Surabaya-based PT PAL shipbuilding company, had often been beaten in the international market as a result, mainly, of the absence of export credit financing.
Habibie said the absence of export credit facilities was the main reason for the uncompetitiveness of IPTN aircraft on the international market.
Losing money
Habibie admitted on Monday that five of the 10 companies under BPIS have been losing money. He said this was not because their products were uncompetitive but, rather, because their sales efforts have not been supported by export credit financing.
"Nobody pays cash for aircraft, ships or trains," he told journalists during a break of the House hearing.
He argued that all IPTN's competitors on the international market supported their sales with export credit financing.
"We should therefore be given such a facility so that we can compete under the same conditions," he said.
He added that President Soeharto had asked him to discuss, with both the finance minister and the governor of the central bank, the possibility of arranging export credits in order to support aircraft sales by IPTN.
"If such export credit financing is not possible, then I think it is better to close down those strategic industries, even if that means firing 47,000 highly-skilled employees," Habibie said.
At yesterday's hearing, the Minister Mar'ie reiterated that any incentives provided to companies under BPIS or to other industrial firms should be based on existing regulations.
"We are committed to granting tax incentives and other fiscal support to BPIS companies, provided these are in line with existing regulations," Mar'ie said.(hen)