Dahlan Iskan Wonder Why did the House of Representatives insist on RI to print Rp. 600 billion pages?

YAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – The Indonesian House of Representatives Budget Agency proposes to the government and the Bank of Indonesia (BI) to print up to Rs 600 trillion. Print more money, aiming to save the Indonesian economy from the effects of the Corona virus (Covid-19).

The speech to print new money came after seeing the state budget deficit widen above 5 percent from earlier just 1.75 percent. DPR said printing new money was more profitable than adding debt.

Former SOE Minister Dahlan Iskan joined the vote by addressing board members who insisted that the government and BI take notice of the speech to print more rupees. He questioned the motivation behind the speech.

“This needs to be taken into account. Mukhamad Misbakhun (Golkar faction) has managed to convince Golkar internally. Furthermore, he has also managed to convince other factions in the DPR. The DPR is unanimous behind this,” Dahlan said. disway.id, Wednesday (05/13/2020).

Also read: BI Governor: Print Money and Share It with the Public? There is not that!

Although the majority factions in the DPR have supported the speech, they have yet to deal with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and BI Governor Perry Warjiyo. Both bureaucrats, from the start, objected to Indonesia printing more rupees.

“But the DPR is very unanimous in the direction of printing money. I don’t know who DPR members in other factions can make up for Misbakhun’s intelligence, in discussions within the House of Representatives. How smooth,” Dahlan said.

“I can’t imagine if there was a scientific dialogue in the DPR forum at the time. Before they finally unanimously supported the idea of ​​printing money from Golkar,” he said again.

Dahlan questioned the reasoning behind the DPR that kept asking the government and the BI to print more money. The most prominent member of parliament is Misbakhun.

Also read: Reflecting from Zimbabwe, it is a row of risks if RI prints too much money

“Misbakhun is at the top of his mind, printing money like his broom. He claims to have explored other options. Everything is worse and worse,” said the former Managing Director of PLN.

For example, the topic of inflation. According to Dahlan, Misbakhun knew that printing money would cause inflation. Dahlan said, Misbakhun believed that Indonesia’s current economic scale could not be compared with 1956. Especially with Zimbabwe.

Misbakhun’s reason

House XI Commission member Mukhamad Misbakhun said Indonesia’s economic problems that were depressed due to the coronavirus pandemic could not be solved by printing money for BI.

According to him, Indonesia cannot be compared to Zimbabwe, which has been solving problems by printing money and re-currency.

“If you print money, won’t it be like Zimbabwe? Size, model, economic structure and Zimbabwe are different. The monetary system is different, the political system is also different, “Misbakhun said Wednesday (5/6/2020).

If BI prints money to suppress the problems of the Indonesian economy it is not supposed to cause inflation, he denied it.

Also read: Former Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan proposes that BI print Rs 4 trillion, for what?

Even with the printing of money, Misbakhun continued, inflation can still be measured.

“So if printing money will cause inflation? Yes. I know, but inflation can be measured. If it needs to be channeled into the state budget, it will become a social safety net to increase purchasing power,” he said.

Earlier, the Indonesian Parliamentary Budget Agency proposed to the government and the Bank of Indonesia (BI) to print up to Rs 600 trillion.

Print more money, aiming to save the Indonesian economy from the effects of the corona virus.

Former Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan also supports the speech presented by the people’s representatives. In fact, according to the Gita version, it is proposed that the printed money be much greater, as much as Rp 4,000 billion.

Also read: BI does not print additional money for liquidity injections, this is the reason

The speech to print new money came after seeing the state budget deficit widen above 5 percent from earlier just 1.75 percent.

Gita, who currently serves as vice president for Kadin’s consideration, believes that BI need not worry about the rupee’s weakening against other countries’ currencies.

The reason is that many countries now print money to meet the economic needs of their countries.

It also put aside the concerns of many parties about the existence of moral hazard in printing money. According to him, the key to channeling money to the public is to strengthen the coordination of the central and regional governments to determine the channeling of aid distribution.

(Source: KOMPAS.com/Ade Miranti | Editor: Sakina Setiawan)