Apindo Calls An Improvement To KUR Ceiling Needs Accompaniment Of Recipient Expansion

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Economic Policy Analyst Committee of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) Ajab Hamdani said the increase in the People's Business Credit ceiling (KUR) to IDR 460 trillion in 2023 needs to be accompanied by the expansion of the recipient Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

It means that it needs to add 20 to 25 percent of MSME players who have just been touched by KUR. So it's not only the effectiveness of the distribution that is measured, but also the extensification that is expected to be leveraged," said Ajub as quoted by Antara, Friday, October 7.

Ajib said that the KUR's ability to increase the capacity of MSMEs would be reduced if the increase in ceilings was only used by MSME actors who had previously taken advantage of KUR.

Therefore, he continued, in addition to increasing the KUR ceiling, the government needs to increase the financial literacy of MSME actors who have not yet received complete information regarding KUR.

The government also needs to encourage MSME actors to form a business ecosystem, so that they can access information and credit in groups.

What we have photographed in the field, the spread of asymmetrical information is still happening. The government has good programs, banks have credit ceilings, but this is not well accessed by MSME actors," said Ajub.

The collaboration of three stakeholders is the regulator consisting of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, and the Ministry of Finance, financial industries such as banks, cooperatives, and People's Credit Banks (BPR), as well as business actors, which make the business ecosystem also necessary.

Banks will really measure how the repair capacity of each business actor is. And the problem is that sometimes MSME actors don't have good financial books, so it's difficult for banks to measure the rate of repayment of loans, so it takes collaboration from various parties to reduce this risk," he said.