Indonesia's Transportation Ministry will soon
issue an order obliging all seaport operators across the archipelago to stop
charging in US dollars for numerous services.
The
ministry’s director general for sea transportation, Bobby Mamahit, said the use
of the rupiah was expected to help stabilise the currency.
“We
will draft a ministerial instruction obliging all seaport [operators] to
conduct transactions in rupiah,” he said on Tuesday, adding that the
instruction would be ready next week. “We will also first forbid transactions
in US dollars, while we will develop a regulation requiring service charges be
set in rupiah, not the US dollar.”
According
to Bobby, a lot of seaports remain unaware of the 2011 Currency Law, which
stipulates that all domestic transactions should be carried out in rupiah, due
to a lack of information dissemination.
Coordinating
Economic Minister Chairul Tanjung said during a visit to Tanjung Priok Port in
North Jakarta last week that his office would give state-owned port operator
Pelindo II three months to start charging in rupiah for services instead of the
US currency.
Pelindo
II president director RJ Lino insisted that the company would continue to set
the port’s terminal handling charges and cost handling charges in greenback.
According
to Pelindo II, 30 to 35 percent of transactions at its ports are carried out in
US dollars, mostly related to exports and imports, while all domestic
transactions were conducted in rupiah.
Responding
to the issue, industry groups have called on the port operator to not only use
the rupiah in all transactions but also for its service rates to boost the
country’s logistics competitiveness.
Indonesian
Logistics Association (ALI) said the policy had severely hurt the industry, due
to the rupiah’s depreciation against the US dollar.
Nadya
Natahadibrata
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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