VOI Today: Firm! Minister Of Finance Purbaya Refuses To Pay Debt For Jokowi's High Speed Rail Project Using The State Budget, Handed Over To The Antara

JAKARTA - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadive strongly rejects the use of the State Budget to cover the debt of the quick train which is around US$7.2 billion or Rp116.54 trillion as of August 2025.

Head of the BUMN Regulatory Agency as well as COO Danantara Dony Oskaria proposed two schemes to save money on money. First, adding capital to PT KAI to become an independent company and asking the government to take over the infrastructure for thembar project. However, Purbaya Purbaya immediately rejected the scheme because he said Danantara had managed BUMN dividends of around Rp. 80 trillion per year, which should be enough to solve this problem. Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Prasetyo Hadi confirmed that the government did not plan to use the state budget.

It is known that this high-speed rail project was previously contested by Japan and China. In 2014 Japan offered a total investment of US$6.2 billion (around Rp91 trillion), funded 75% by a 40 year tenor loan with very low interest rates, which is 0.1% per year. Meanwhile, China offers a cheaper investment value, namely US$5.5 billion (around Rp81 trillion), with a 40% China ownership scheme and 60% of the BUMN consortium. Chinese loans are 40 years of tenor, but with a much higher interest rate, which is 2% per year. China's bid was accepted by Indonesia through Presidential Decree No. 107 of 2015. Development began in 2016 and was originally targeted to operate in 2019, during the era of President Jokowi's administration. Economist Gede Sandra suggested a solution so that Indonesia could pay off the debt of high-speed rail projects without using the APBN. Check out the full information in VOI.id.