SMS debtors get discounts from IBRA

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) will provide a 100 percent interest discount and 100 percent penalty discount to small- and medium-scale debtors of productive credit facilities worth up to Rp 5 billion (about US$560,000).

The agency said in a statement on Thursday that the facility would be granted only to the debtors who agreed to settle their total outstanding debts.

"The facility is not applicable to mortgage loans, car loans and credit cards," the agency said, adding that the facility, which is provided for under its special crash program to speed up debt settlement, will be available in the period from July 24 to August 18, next month.

The special crash program will be conducted simultaneously at IBRA headquarters in Jakarta and its 10 representative offices in Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Denpasar, Medan, Lampung, Pontianak, Balikpapan, Manado and Makassar.

The agency said that eligible recipients of the program were debtors of 38 closed down banks, 12 nationalized banks and seven banks under government's recapitalization program.

The facility is part of a series of the agency's crash programs launched earlier this year.

IBRA said that it had collected cash amounting to Rp 650 billion from the previous crash program, from 7,985 debtors. The agency said that there were about 7,000 debtors currently under the settlement process. (hen)