Telkom to fine PT Daya Mitra for tardiness
Telkom to fine PT Daya Mitra for tardiness
JAKARTA (JP): PT Daya Mitra Malindo, one of the five private consortia awarded 15-year joint operation contracts for domestic telecommunication services, will face a penalty by the end of next month if it fails to start operating in Kalimantan.
President of the state-owned PT Telkom, Setyanto P. Santosa, said yesterday that Daya Mitra will have to pay a fine to his company owing to the delayed project in Kalimantan.
"Up till now there has been no communication between Telkom and Daya Mitra. But we are giving Daya Mitra one more chance to resolve its internal problems," he said. "Daya Mitra has a 90-day opportunity (since Jan. 1 this year) to resolve the problems or it will have to pay the penalty."
He refused to put a figure on the penalty.
The government selected the five consortia for the joint operation contracts to lay and operate about two million telephone lines in the country's five regions over a 15-year period. The contracts officially started in early January.
Daya Mitra groups ALatieF Corporation, PT Intidaya Sistelindomitra and tea producers' cooperative Kopthindo of Indonesia, Telekom Malaysia Bhd., Singapore-based American International Group Inc. and TM Communications of Hong Kong. The consortium was originally required to install and operate 237,000 phone lines in Kalimantan by 1999 for 15 years.
Telekom Malaysia said recently that it was ready to quit the project if there was no solution to the differences with the Indonesian partners.
Informed sources said that the main problem concerned differences in the valuation of per-line investments for telephone installations.
In addition to Daya Mitra, there are four other consortia which won the rights for four other areas. Telkom handed over last month telecoms networks and facilities in the four areas (Sumatra, West Java, eastern provinces and Sulawesi) to each of the winning consortia.
The five projects are part of the government's program to install five million telephone lines within the current Sixth Five-Year Development Plan period, which ends in March 1999.
Three million of the total will be installed in the greater Jakarta area and East Java, which will both remain under the management and operation of Telkom.
The contracts are estimated to generate total revenues of Rp 15.25 trillion (about US$6.6 billion) for Telkom within the contract period.
Setyanto said yesterday that Telkom, for the first time, had received US$100 million in initial investor payments from the consortia.
"We should have received US$105 million, but Daya Mitra has failed to pay its $5 million," he said.
He also said that as of Feb. 14, Telkom would begin receiving Minimum Telkom Revenues (MTR), the payments for the joint operation contracts.
Setyanto also said yesterday that Telkom's unaudited net profit in 1995 was estimated to exceed Rp 827 billion (US$357.38 million), the level targeted in the prospectus for the company's public flotation.
"Telkom's revenues in 1995 were estimated to exceed the Rp 5.03 trillion level promised by the company in its prospectus," he said.
Telkom sold some of its shares domestically and overseas last November. (08/icn)