Thousands of MSMEs Have Received Debt Relief Program in President Prabowo’s Era
Jakarta – The government has emphasized that it will be selective in determining the recipients of bad debt relief for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). This policy is given to MSMEs that have difficulty paying loans due to unavoidable business risks.
The Secretary of Medium Enterprises at the Ministry of MSMEs, Fitri Rinaldi, stated that factors such as decreased income due to Covid-19 or natural disasters are the main considerations.
“Hopefully, after they receive the relief, BI checking will be clean and they can access new loans for business capital,” he said.
This step is expected to provide a breath of fresh air for MSMEs who are entangled in financial problems and encourage inclusive economic growth. The government will also provide assistance to MSMEs so that they do not fall back into bad debt.
“The assistance is in terms of business management, production, and marketing,” he added.
This policy is regulated in Government Regulation (PP) Number 47 of 2024 concerning the Elimination of Bad Debts for MSMEs. This regulation includes the write-off of MSME credits registered as customers of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) banks, with a total of bad debts written off reaching IDR 2.5 trillion.
Minister of MSMEs Maman Abdurrahman said that the targeted sectors include agriculture, plantations, livestock, and creative industries such as fashion, culinary, and others. The government also hopes that this step can have a positive impact on MSMEs that have had difficulty accessing capital due to their bad credit history.
The government is targeting at least 1 million MSMEs to receive debt write-off facilities. However, the implementation of this policy still faces several obstacles, especially in technical aspects.
“Because many MSMEs are in remote areas, some may have moved addresses. We will try our best to achieve the target of 1 million,” said Maman.
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, revealed that as many as 71 thousand MSME actors have received debt write-off facilities from the State-Owned Bank Association (Himbara).
“From our monitoring, Bank BRI is the one that does the most write-offs,” said Airlangga
Airlangga explained that this policy is a form of government support for MSMEs. The write-off policy is regulated in Government Regulation (PP) Number 47 of 2024 concerning the Write-off of Bad Debts for MSMEs.
“Under the leadership of President Prabowo Subianto, one of the initiatives that has been implemented in the first 100 days is writing off debts and writing off debts as a form of siding with MSMEs,” he added.
