Merdeka.com – The problems that plagued Garuda Indonesia continued to echo and it was reported that Pelita Air Service would enter to replace the role of commercial flights. Alluding to this, the former Minister of SOEs, Dahlan Iskan, said that Erick Thohir’s move was the right and smart thing.
Dahlan assessed that SOE Minister Erick Thohir was a smart person by choosing Pelita Air Service as a replacement for Garuda Indonesia.
“The Minister of SOEs is smart: choosing Pelita as a replacement for Garuda Indonesia, if it is necessary, maybe it is not necessary,” he wrote, citing disway.id, Monday (25/10).
Dahlan then mentioned that by making Pelita Air a replacement for Garuda Indonesia, management issues would be easier because they don’t have the burdens of the past. “Currently Pelita is still very slim, you can find cheaper planes, you can find more selective personnel, as long as Garuda’s old disease doesn’t repeat itself at Pelita,” said Dahlan.
But what became a note for Dahlan was that Pertamina became a subsidiary of a large airline which was not in the plan. That means it also carries a big risk.
“In fact, Pertamina has just been reorganized. Suddenly it has to have a large-scale subsidiary, which is not planned,” he wrote.
At the beginning of his writing, Dahlan Iskan said that Garuda Indonesia would be fine, provided that Pertamina continued to provide fuel.
Trying to take Pertamina’s point of view, Dahlan tried to imagine being a director of Pertamina, when his subordinates made a report regarding the fuel that Garuda Indonesia had not paid for which had reached Rp 12 trillion.
“Your subordinates have also made a memo: will Pertamina continue to send BBM to Garuda or stopped?” he wrote.
He said that as a director, he would no longer want to send fuel to Garuda Indonesia. However, Dahlan assesses Pertamina continues to be kind. “If it wasn’t for Pertamina, it would be impossible to have such a good heart. How can a company want to lend up to Rp 12 trillion,” he said.
So, he concluded that the life of Garuda Indonesia was in the hands of Pertamina to decide. Not the aircraft charter company in America or Europe.
Dahlan Iskan assumed, for example, in the near future, Pertamina made a decision to no longer send raw materials to Garuda Indonesia, this could cause the airline to no longer be able to operate.
Dahlan tried to understand Pertamina’s way of thinking as a company. The question is why Pertamina still sends fuel to Garuda, as a company, Dahlan wrote, it is impossible and unreasonable, and even violates all the principles in a company.
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Garuda Indonesia’s Debt
Dahlan then wrote, in the balance sheet, the Rp12 trillion receivables were included in profit. Last year Pertamina lost, which Dahlan saw as a funny thing as a company that suffered losses had such a large bill.
“This year, in the first six months of 2021, Pertamina has made a profit of Rp. 13 trillion, which is great. But does that mean Pertamina has Rp. 13 trillion? No. Of the Rp. 13 trillion profit, Rp. 12 trillion is still stuck in Garuda,” he said.
Dahlan said that the tax regulations actually prohibit a company from giving debt to other companies like that. Meanwhile, Pertamina is not a financial institution that can provide loans.
So if the Rp12 trillion is realized in Pertamina’s profit, it means that Pertamina also has to pay its income tax. Dahlan assumed that if the tax amount was 30 percent, it would mean that Pertamina had to pay a profit tax of around Rp. 3 trillion.
“How much did Pertamina lose in its transaction with Garuda. Or did Pertamina sell fuel to Garuda at a higher price, incorporating risk into the price?” Dahlan asked.
“Of course only Pertamina and Garuda know. But why does Pertamina continue to send fuel to Garuda? My guess is that there was an order from the shareholders, the government,” he said.
Dahlan said that if the order document was in the hands of Pertamina, of course it would be good for Pertamina. For example, Garuda was eventually closed. This means that Garuda cannot pay the Rp12 trillion debt. Pertamina may be able to use the order document to collect directly from the government.
Thus, of course Pertamina does not have to accept cash. It could be in the form of a dividend deduction. This means that Pertamina is considered to have paid dividends in the amount of the receivables for which there are documents.
“The issue of fuel, in my opinion, is one of the reasons why the name Pelita emerged as a potential replacement for Garuda. Pelita is a subsidiary of Pertamina. The planes it owns are small. Only for oil-producing areas,” he said.
This means that Pelita Air will seek to charter many planes, but it can be done with planes whose leases are not entrusted to the interests of commission seekers.
“Even if in the future Pertamina continues to send fuel to Pelita, the accounting calculations will be easier. Pertamina’s receivables to Pelita will be immediately decided at the GMS as an additional capital contribution. That is something Pertamina cannot do with Garuda,” wrote Dahlan.
