MERPATI TO PAY PART OF DEBTS TO PERTAMINA ON FRIDAY

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 19 (ANTARA) - Merpati Nusantara Airlines is expected on Friday to pay part of its debts to state-owned oil/gas firm Pertamina  after Pertamina stopped its aircraft fuel supply to Merpati at Surabaya and Makassar airports last weekend.          "Merpati already has made a commitment  to pay part of its debt  to Pertamina," Pertamina's vice president for corporate communication,  Muhammad Harun, said.          He said he was sure that on October 21, 2011 at the latest, state-owned Marpati would keep its promise and honor  its unpaid aviation turbine fuel (avtur) bills.         "We were pessimistic before that Merpati would  pay its debts due to its financial troubles, yet with its response to our goodwill, we hope that  Marpati's management will  no longer break its promise and  pay its debts," Harun said.         He said that Merpati's debts amounted to Rp550 billion, including its debt principals which in  2006 amounted to Rp270 billion. "The amount swelled to Rp550 billion because of interest and fines," he said.         PT Pertamina last week terminated its aviation turbine fuel (Avtur) supply to Merpati Airlines at Juanda and Hasanuddin aiports as of 00:00 October 15, 2001, following Marpati's failure to pay for its  aircraft fuel supply.          "Consequently, we have to stop our flight operations from and to Surabaya's Juanda and Ujung Pandang's Hasanuddin's airports until an unspecified time," Merpati President Director Capt Sardjono Jhony told the press Saturday last week.          Pertamina imposed a limited termination of its Avtur supply to Marpati because the state-owned airlines had yet to settled its obligation to pay  for the avtur. "Based on the Pertamina letter, the balance of our unpaid aircraft fuels for the August 27, 2011 - October 13, 2011 period amounts to Rp2.7 billion and US95.6 thousands," the Merpati president director said.          According to Harun, Merpati has unpaid bills on the purchase of avtur to Pertamina worth Rp266.987 billion up to Ocotber 2011. Based on Pertamina's data obtained by ANTARA on Monday, the amount of obligation (long outstanding/first phase debts) that has to be settled by Merpati totaled Rp212 billion. This amount is accumulation of Merpati's avtur consumption in the 2006-2007 period.          Besides, Merpati also has the obligation to pay its debts (second phase) from its avtur consumption up to August 2011 which amounted to Rp44.2 billion and US$700 thousands.           "This means that Merpati has the obligation to pay Rp256.78 billion plus US$700 thousands. This value does not yet include the  interest and fines,"  M. Harun.          Regarding Merpati's decision to stop its flights at the two airports of Juanda in East Java and Hasanuddin in Makassar, Harun said Pertamina regretted the policy.           Merpati President Director Sardjono admitted that the problem had happened as a result the financial troubles the airlines had faced in the last several years, and at present it was waiting for the disbursement of the government's financial assistance.          He said that actually, Merpati and Pertmina had agreed to settle the debts during  a meeting on February 12, 2011 with  the Asset Guarantor Company (PPA) which was led by the state-owned enterprises (BUMN) minister.          The  meeting on August 18, 2011 concluded that Marpati's accumulative debts amounted to Rp270 billion plus an avtur obligation, This amount  of debts would get payment priority when the government's capital participation with Merpati worth Rp561 billion was disbursed.          "This means that institutionally, Marpati's obligation to Pertimina is guaranteed," Sardjono said.          Therefore, Pertamina urged to government, in this case the ministry of state-owned enterprises (BUMN) to help Merpati pay off its debts to Pertamina.          "We urged the BUMN to help Merpati settle its debts because up to now Merpati still has no goodwill to pay its debts,"  Muhammad Harun, said on the sidelines of  the World Renewable Energy Congress in Nusa Dua, Bali, early this week.          Pertamina hoped that the   BUMN minister would soon mediate the failure of Merpati to pay its debts. "Up to now, (Merpati) has made no efforts yet to pay its debts, but we hope that in the coming several days there has been a solution," he said.           Luckily now, Pertamina is optimistic that Merpati will pay its debts on Friday, October 21, 2011 at the latest.           After all, Pertamina has also decided to supply avtur again to Merpati.          Harun said he appreciated the management of Merpati which had shown a good reaction to Pertamina's good intention to provide avtur again.          Pertamina beginning on Monday supplied avtur again to Merpati, after it stopped it on October 15-16, 2011.          "We began supplying avtur again since Monday at the two  airports," Harun said. He said that Pertamina began supplying the aircraft fuel  after Merpati had agreed to pay its first phase debts amounting to Rp212 billion, excluding its fines and interest. It will pay off in seven years at the latest.          The second phase debts amounting to Rp44 billion and 700 thousands US dollars will be paid off in two years.  The current balance of debts amounting to Rp8.2 billion and US$121 thousands will be paid on Friday, October 21, 2011.          And for this, Merpati  has resumed its flight operations at the two airports.          Sriyanto Senoadi, Merpati's manager for Surabaya, East Java, said that flights of Merpati on seven routes from Surabaya to other destinations have now returned to normal.***5*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/22:50/a014) 19-10-2011 22:47:4