Bulog Boss Budi Waseso: Reminds The Government Still Has Debt Of Nearly IDR 4 Trillion

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Perum Bulog revealed that the government's debt to the company has almost reached IDR 4 trillion. Bulog continues to complain about the stagnant distribution policy due to the long flow of government bureaucracy. In fact, until now the distribution of Government Rice Reserves (CBP) is still problematic.

The president director of Perum Bulog, Budi Waseso, said that the government had not yet confirmed the distribution of old stock rice. He said the coordination meeting at the ministry level, which had been held three times, had yet to find a solution.

"This is not the responsibility of pure Bulog (rice distribution). Because (the remaining stock) is an assignment from the government and imports are also assigned to CBP, but after that it is not used," he said during a hearing with Commission IV DPR, Monday, August 30.

Meanwhile, the burden of procuring rice on the assignment route since 2018 has continued to accumulate in warehouses and has not been used. Consequently, the remaining rice from domestic and foreign procurement will experience a decline in quality, due to being unused for years.

Buwas as he is familiarly called, also periodically continues to write to the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Finance to immediately make decisions. This is because the procurement of rice for that size uses commercial interest-bearing debt funds.

"Meanwhile, if we do the calculations, we continue to lose. In terms of losses, Bulog is indeed a loss. If we report now that the disposal of 20 thousand tons ago, there has not been any payment to this day. So the state owes us still Rp. 173 billion from and to this day it has not been completed," he said.

Not to mention, continued Buwas, about the issue of paying for rice for the CBP-Disaster last year, distributing rice for PPKM, to the Food Price Stability Reserve (CSHP) for assignments that have not been paid yet.

"Until now, the state debt with Bulog is almost Rp4 trillion which has not been paid. Meanwhile, the interest is commercial, so the interest is running," he said.

Furthermore, Buwas said that the company actually made quite a profit on a commercial basis. However, when faced with the assignment, the percentage is also smaller, so that with the government's unpaid receivables, Bulog continues to lose money.

In fact, on several occasions ago, Buwas also asked SOE Minister Erick Thohir not to judge the performance of Perum Bulog based solely on profit and loss.

"Commercial is in fact profitable, but the percentage is smaller than the assignment. Once converted to the assignment, fortunately we have nothing," he explained.

Buwas also reminded the government that the commercial interest expense continues. Moreover, the treatment of rice that has been purchased for a long time will certainly be more expensive, while the quality continues to deteriorate. Buwas said, Bulog was resigned to being able to sell the remaining commodities at an impossible price.

Therefore, the company does not want to take further risks by demanding a concrete decision from the final decision of the government's Coordination Meeting.

"Because this has been a meeting three times without breaking up, we don't want to take the risk (of loss)," he said.