Indonesia: Govt told to relax property ownership for foreigners to boost growth

• Jan 28, 2019

State-owned lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) has announced it will stop disbursing credits for ownership of apartments in Meikarta township project, following the arrests of several people, including executives of Lippo Group, by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a bribery case.

BNI retail director Tambok PS Simanjuntak said the ceasing of the disbursement would be in effect until the bribery case had legal certainty.

“We will stop apartment ownership credits for new customers until the legal process is completed. Or at least there will be clarity on direction of the case,” Tampok said as reported by tempo.co on Monday.

The KPK has named suspects and arrested a number of officials and businesspeople in Bekasi regency, West Java, for alleged bribery concerning the issuance of property permits for the modern city of Meikarta — a flagship project of diversified conglomerate Lippo Group.

The suspects include Bekasi Regent Neneng Hassanah Yasin and several other officials as well as Lippo Group executive Billy Sindoro, along with the group’s consultants — Taryudi and Fitra Djaja Purnama — and Lippo employee Henry Jasmen.

PT Mahkota Sentosa Utama (MSU), a subsidiary of PT Lippo Cikarang, part of the Lippo Group, announced in March that Meikarta was supported by 12 banks to finance the apartment ownership credits.

Tambok said BNI would also evaluate the credits that had already been disbursed for the apartment ownership in Meikarta. “Our legal team is reviewing and will find a way to seek a solution,” he said, adding that BNI had 200 creditors for the apartment ownership in Meikarta, which is worth Rp 50 billion (US$3.29 million). (bbn)

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/10/22/bni-stops-credits-for-apartment-ownership-in-meikarta.html