Aiming For Rice Surplus, Erick Thohir Says Government Disburses IDR 2.7 Trillion Loans To 6,190 Rice Mills

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, Erick Thohir, said that currently, the government has disbursed loan funds in the form of loans amounting to IDR 2.7 trillion to 6,190 rice mills (integrated rice processing centers) in order to achieve the rice surplus target by the end of this year.

"And of course we hope to achieve a rice surplus by the end of the year", he said at an online press conference, Monday, July 26.

According to Erick, the funds were channeled by the government through the State Bank (Himbara) as part of the People's Business Credit or KUR scheme. Meanwhile, Himbara banks that became distributors were BRI, BNI, and Bank Mandiri with a portion of 92 percent of the total national KUR for the 2021 period, which amounted to IDR 253 trillion.

"This is done to support the agricultural program that has been launched by the government", he said.

Furthermore, Erick also explained that his party divided the distribution of agricultural KUR into eight different clusters, namely the rice cluster, corn cluster, oil palm cluster, sugarcane cluster, and citrus cluster. Then the ornamental plant cluster, the coffee cluster, and the tuber cluster.

"We can collaborate with this strategy later with existing programs at the Ministry of Agriculture, so that from upstream to downstream farmers can enjoy it", he said.

To note, the realization of KUR for the period January to June 25, 2021, has reached IDR 143.14 trillion, or around 56.58 percent of this year's overall target of IDR 253 trillion.

Meanwhile, the number of debtors who have taken advantage of this financial facility is recorded at 3.87 million debtors with an outstanding value as of August 2021 of IDR 283 trillion.

The government itself claims that the quality of KUR disbursement is very good with the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio maintained at 0.88 percent or much lower than the safe limit of plus-minus 4 percent.

"Of course we can develop all of these rice mills, such as in Ciamis and Kebumen, which is a good collaboration between Gapoktan and the Ministry of SOEs", concluded Erick.