Regarding The Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Train, Special Staff Erick Thohir Arya Sinulingga Calls Faisal Basri's Statement Subjective And Ridiculous

Special Staff of the Ministry of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Arya Sinulingga responded to senior economist Faisal Basri's statement that the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail (KCJB) project would not be profitable. According to him, this statement is totally wrong.

"We regret what Faisal Basri said, Faisal Basri is completely wrong. Those who say that there will always be losses, it's impossible. Yes, where there is an investor who wants to enter with a loss condition. That's ridiculous. Faisal Basri is really ridiculous," he told reporters, Thursday, October 14th.

Arya also regrets that Faisal's statement is not based on data. According to Arya, what Faisal said was only subjective, so there were no exact figures.

"And it looks like he doesn't use numbers, doesn't use analysis, only subjective things appear. So that's a big mistake. It's a shame that Faisal Basri said that. That's not true," he said.

According to Arya, there are no definite figures regarding the cost overrun or cost overrun for the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project. Currently, the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) is conducting an audit of the cost overrun case.

In fact, the management of PT Kereta Api (Persero) has revealed that the swelling of KCJB reached 3.8 billion to 4.9 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 54 trillion to Rp. 69 trillion.

"I need to say that we are still calculating. Wait a minute. The actual cost overrun appears. After being audited by BPKP, we can only know the actual figure," he said.

Previously, University of Indonesia (UI) senior economist Faisal Basri criticized a number of transportation infrastructure projects built by the government. According to Faisal, these infrastructure projects are a waste. The projects in question are airports, ports and high-speed trains.

Faisal said the infrastructure projects were considered redundant because they would not be profitable but the investment was very large. Therefore, he considered, the current government is very wasteful, it can even lead to state bankruptcy.

"The project was built that was not chaotic, the high-speed train project, which was previously business to business, will soon be injected with the state budget. Kertajati would be better off as a cattle shed, Kuala Tanjung port was built near Belawan, Palembang LRT, just a few things that I have said so that In my opinion, the conclusion is that the top leadership has made a mistake," he said in a virtual discussion, Wednesday, October 14.

Furthermore, Faisal also mentioned that soon it will be the people who will finance the project.

"Soon people will pay for the fast train, which may cost Rp. 400 thousand one way and it is estimated that until the end of the world there will be no return on investment," he said.