Member Of Parliament Rejects Use Of State Budget For Inflating High-Speed Train Costs: Strange Because From The Beginning The Feasibility Study Was Carried Out By The Chinese Side

Photo: Doc. Between

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI DPR RI Amin Ak rejects the use of APBN funds to finance the cost overrun or cost overruns of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail infrastructure project.

"Don't be trapped in wanting to disburse state budget funds to cover cost overruns," said Amin Ak in a written statement, quoted from Antara, Thursday, August 4.

Amin said his warning was based on a number of irregularities in the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project since the project proposal was submitted by China in mid-August 2015.

At that time, he said, China offered lower project costs than Japan and promised projects to be carried out on a business-to-business (B2B) basis without the need for government guarantees.

But along the way, according to Amin, this development has made Indonesia stuck in a dilemma, to continue the project with the risk of an increasing debt burden or stop the project with the risk of the project stalling, but still paying the debt that has already been running.

To stop it, said Amin, is also difficult, apart from the fact that huge funds have already been used, the work on this project has already exceeded 80 percent.

"From the beginning the feasibility study was carried out by the Chinese side. It is very strange if they were not able to detect the potential cost overrun. Is this due to the low credibility and quality of the feasibility study or a trap to keep the project running at a loss," said Amin.

Another oddity, Amin continued, is that from a business standpoint, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail operation is difficult to recover because by calculating the amount of development costs, which swelled to US$7.9 billion from the initial US$5.13 billion, the business count is very high. hard to get back the capital.

According to Amin, the situation is similar to that experienced by a number of countries that use funding from China for infrastructure development such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

As reported, the Deputy for Coordination of Regional Development and Spatial Planning of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Wahyu Utomo, said that the government is optimistic that the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train (KCJB) can operate in 2023.

"We are sure that the high-speed train will be operational soon, hopefully next year," he said in a media briefing, Tuesday, July 26.

He emphasized that his party together with the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment are currently continuing to carry out strict supervision of the KCJB project. The reason is that the KCJB project is one of the goals of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit during the G20 Summit in Indonesia in November 2022.