Amid The Threat Of A Recession, The Revision Of The Bank Indonesia Law Is Considered Inappropriate

Bank Indonesia Building. (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the DPR Budget Agency (Banggar), Said Abdullah, assessed that the current momentum for the revision of the Bank Indonesia Law is not appropriate considering that the national economy is in the midst of a recession. According to Said, economic recovery needs to be the focus of all stakeholders during this pandemic, not only the government.

"Therefore, I hope that all of our resources are used to restore the national economy which is about to experience a recession," Said said as quoted by Antara, Tuesday, September 8.

The PDIP Senior Politician also highlighted several regulatory articles in the draft revision of the BI Law, for example concerning the existence of the Monetary Board. In fact, according to him, Indonesia already has a Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) as stated in Law No. 9 of 2016 concerning Financial System Crisis Prevention and Management (PPKSK),

Even the composition of the KSSK, Said continued, has represented the institution referred to by the Monetary Board, in which the Minister of Finance is the KSSK Coordinator.

"The scope of the KSSK's authority is not only the monetary sector, but the entire financial sector which has the potential to cause a financial system crisis," he said.

Likewise with the draft of returning the authority of bank supervision from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to Bank Indonesia (BI), this arrangement will invalidate most of the contents of Law No. 21 of 2011 concerning OJK.

"The basic question is, are some cases of weakness in OJK supervision immediately answered by transferring bank supervision to BI? I do not see this is the main problem," said Said.

According to him, the main problem related to OJK is the absence of a strong supervisory agency, like the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) which has a strong KPK Dewas.

This is considered important considering that OJK has extraordinary authority, however, OJK's budget is obtained from levies on the financial industry directly by OJK, thus providing an opening for conflicts of interest.

"So, actually it is not only Law No. 23 of 1999 that needs to be revised, but also Law No. 21 of 2011 concerning the OJK. On the side of Law No. 21 of 2011, it is necessary to add regulations regarding the OJK Supervisory Agency. I think that is what we have to think about to perfected, "he said.