JAKARTA – The polemic over the large number of exporters parking their funds abroad has recently become a hot topic. Some people even say that Indonesia’s earth has only been dredged, but the money stays abroad.
Therefore, starting in 2022, Bank Indonesia (BI) and the government will again impose sanctions on exporters who do not place their export proceeds (DHE) domestically.
This policy is expected to have an impact on strengthening foreign exchange reserves.
However, The Chairman of The House of Regional Representative of the Republic of Indonesia (DPD RI) AA LaNyalla Mahmud Mattalitti, argues that this regulation has not been able to answer the counter trade pattern (ijon system) that is often adopted by exporters in Indonesia.
“First, there are still many natural resource processing entrepreneurs who apply the counter trade or ijon scheme,” said LaNyalla, Thursday (23/2).
“They attract foreign loans for the exploitation of mines, gardens, etc., which are paid by the production result. Thus, every export is only recorded in the books, but does not enter the country. The foreign exchange is controlled by the lenders,” he added.
Second, continued the Chairman of the East Java KADIN Advisory Board, they sometime use financial institutions as special assignee abroad with a non-arbitration scheme.
“This means that the guarantee is the mining product itself. So that is why that all export proceeds go into the accounts of financial institutions. Entrepreneurs only record it in the books, which consequently pays taxes,” he said.
One that is dangerous, he added, is that this attitude is adopted as a choice because they do not believe in political stability and government performance.
If a chaos happens, all they need to do is picking up their suitcase and flying overseas. Moreover, the money is already there.
“This is the mentality of entrepreneurs who have no nationalism. Because, maybe, they don’t think that Indonesia is their homeland. And they have never been educated about nationalism,” he added.
LaNyalla also alluded to how the Chinese Government is very strict about maintaining their monetary.
In addition to conducting due diligence on sources of foreign investment funds, they also examined investment schemes for indications of cross settlement with overseas account lenders.
“In China, if there are indications that a company has accounts overseas without domestic affiliation, then it is considered corruption,” he said.
“That’s why Indonesia is an investment paradise with any scheme. Moreover with a myriad of resource facilities from the state, starting from loose credit, concessions, tax holidays, and others,” LaNyalla concluded.
