Textile Association Calls for Strict Foreign Exchange Controls
Indonesian Filament and Fibre Producers Association (APSyFI) has urged the government to implement strict foreign exchange controls to stabilise the rupiah, which has weakened. The textile and textile products industry remains pressured and plays a significant role in the currency’s depreciation. APSyFI chairman Redma Gita Wirawasta said the industry still depends on imported raw materials, particularly intermediate inputs, which are a driver of rupiah weakness. ‘In addition to the outflow of short-term capital in the financial markets and payments of government debt interest,’ he said in a written statement on Thursday, 21 May 2026.
He supports Bank Indonesia’s policy to restrict foreign exchange transactions without an underlying to a maximum of US$25,000. This also includes making documents linked to tax payments an underlying to limit the space for illegal importers.
Bank Indonesia, he said, could also spur import substitution through tight foreign exchange policy similar to India by limiting per-company foreign exchange purchases to encourage the use of domestic raw materials. This should start with a subsector-by-subsector approach.
He estimates that imports of intermediate raw materials for the textile and textile product sector should be cut by around US$5-6 billion per ton. ‘It only requires careful calculation of each company’s raw material needs, analysing the value chain to determine the real import needs for raw materials, taking into account domestic capacity availability,’ he said.
Executive Director Agus Riyanto of the Korps Alumni Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam (HMI) Rayon Textile said the sector’s low utilisation is a consequence of uncontrolled import policy due to rente-seeking players with bureaucratic apparatus. To stabilise the exchange rate, he urged Bank Indonesia together with the Ministry of Finance to intervene in industrial and trade policy such as enforcing the Export Proceeds (DHE) obligation for natural resources.
Nevertheless, there will be opposition from those who have benefited most so far. ‘Even their data always claim that we lack raw materials as a justification for the import recommendations they publish,’ he added.
Currently the rupiah has weakened by about 5.9-6 percent against the US dollar. At the start of 2026, the rupiah stood at 16,727 per dollar, while today it hovers around 17,655-17,690 per US dollar. It has even briefly touched 17,700 per dollar.