Holiday Ayo - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir has also raised his voice regarding the cost overrun of the Jakarta Bandung Fast Train Project (KCJB) which reached IDR 16.7 trillion. He assessed that the high-speed rail project is still cheaper to build at this time, compared to having to delay it.

The excess development costs will be covered by loans or debts from banks. However, Erick did not specify the loan nominal to cover the cost overrun value.

"The total cost overrun is still cheaper if it is built today because the price of steel has increased tremendously and others have also increased," said Erick, quoted from idntimes.com, Wednesday (19/10).

Previously, the Special Staff for the Minister of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga, said that the debt needed to cover the cost overrun of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train reached 75 percent.

"Later on, we will look for 75 percent of the loan. The loan will be paid when it starts operating," said Arya some time ago.

He explained that the loan would be sought whose source could be from any bank, and did not rule out the possibility of a bank from China.

"We're looking for it, we're still looking for it, it can be from a Chinese bank and so on, we're still looking for it," answered Arya.

Arya continued, the cost overrun of 25 percent will be borne by a consortium of Indonesian SOEs and Chinese SOEs, the portion of which is in accordance with share ownership in the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project. So, the Indonesian BUMN consortium will cover 60 percent, and the Chinese BUMN 40 percent.

"(The portion) of 25 percent (of the total cost overrun) will be taken individually, we will chip in (contribute), Indonesian SOEs will chip in, Chinese SOEs will chip in according to their composition," explained Arya.

He explained that the Indonesian BUMN consortium would deposit funds through PT KAI (Persero) which is known to have received State Capital Participation (PMN).

"So IDR 4 trillion in the Indonesian BUMN consortium, IDR 3 trillion by the Chinese BUMN," he continued.