BRI Issues IDR 24 Trillion Funds To Remove MSME Traffic Credit Due To COVID-19

President Director of BRI Sunarso and Special Staff of the Minister of SOEs Arya Sinulingga (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - President Director of Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) Sunarso revealed that his company had to spend IDR 24 trillion to remove bad loans from MSMEs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, Sunarso emphasized that the Rp24 trillion fund came from the company's profit. Meanwhile, BRI recorded a profit of Rp44.2 trillion to date.

"Until today, we have collected a profit of IDR 44.2 trillion and then we also deleted the micro-credit book MSMEs that were stuck due to Covid, which was IDR 24 trillion," he said at the BUMN Ngopi event, at the Ministry of SOEs Office, Jakarta, Thursday, October 26.

This step, said Sunarso, is also in line with the relaxation of loans from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) which will end. Sunarso emphasized that efforts to abolish MSME bad loans did not interfere with BRI's profits at all.

"How much does the book cost? IDR 24 trillion and does not interfere with profit," he explained.

Suharso explained that this step resulted in the ratio of debt repayment coverage or coverage ratio to BRI's Non-performing Loan (NPL) reaching 280 percent.

"So that's our reserve, now it's 228 percent, it's still more than enough," he said.

"Why is it down from 280 percent? Yes, it was for the cost of removing bad credit from MSMEs of IDR 24 trillion without asking for a penny (to the Ministry of SOEs)," he continued.

On this occasion, Suharso also answered questions about taking steps to accumulate reserves rather than making them a profit.

"We are people who understand the risks we are in the business of looking for profit but also know we are looking for safety, so we are looking for the lucky one and the diver, so we make a profit but we reserve enough reserves to catch up so that we stay safe," he explained.

For your information, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BBRI) noted that the distribution of people's business loans or KUR until September 2023 was IDR 107.84 trillion from the total target of IDR 194.4 trillion.

It was also recorded that until September 2023 BRI had distributed loans to MSMEs amounting to IDR 394 trillion. This figure increased by 18.1 percent compared to the same period in 2022 which was only IDR 333 trillion.