Online loans do not solve problems, Ansor chairman says

Jakarta, NU Online

Chairman of the Central Board of Ansor Youth Movement (GP) Ansor in charge of economy Sumantri Suwarno said that online loans (pinjol) would never solve the emering problems for consuming a huge amount of added values generated by the grassroots.

 

He gave an example, the regional minimum wage (UMR) in Yogyakarta, for example, is Rp. 2.5 million. Then, a worker borrowed money from the pinjol amounting to Rp. 2 million. The legal borrowing interest so far is 0.8 percent a day or 24 percent for one month, so the interest rate becomes Rp. 480 thousand.

 

"So they have to pay interest (and) pay change, that's already 25 percent of their salary a month and has been consumed to pay the pinjol interest," he was quoted by NU Online from the Youtube Channel of the Ansor Youth Movement on Tuesday (9/11/2021) as saying, adding that the pinjol must be regulated. The illegal pinjol must be closed, the legal one must be arranged so as not to cause a ticking time bomb in the future."

 

However, Sumantri is grateful because currently Pinjol is being voiced by many people in the mass media. In fact, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and President Joko Widodo have decided to conduct a moratorium on new pinjol permits. Financial services associations will also cut interest for legal loans.

 

"We have to continuously monitor this and we encourage this industry to be efficient. They (pinjol) reason that the interest is high because the risk of not paying is very possible," said Sumantri.

 

"So I think, we have to adjust the position. We have to push the interest rate so that it is friendly to the borrower, but it can also cover the risk of loan providers, so that in the long term it becomes a driving force for an economy," he added.

 

He said that the loan funding did come from banks. According to Sumantri, money is like blood that can flow and maintain the life of an economy. When there is a flow of money, the community's economy can run. But if the blood contains a lot of sugar, it can cause diabetes. This is the same as the phenomenon of society being flooded with various loan facilities, so that there is a lot of money in circulation, but it contains high interest rates and dangerous collection practices.

 

"Instead of moving the economy, the (loans) directly absorb the added value of the community's economy and create social instability. Husbands can involve in disputes with their wives, wives can be divorced by their husbands for not be permitted to borrow funds from online loans (pinjol)," he explained.

 

The discussion about the pinjol, said Sumantri, had been carried out since a month ago on Twitter. He found the news of people dying as a result of being chased by loan collections which were very disturbing.

 

"Personally, I was triggered when before Eid a friend of mine almost killed herself, a woman, because she was being chased by an online loan. At that time, it was because of a Rp52 million loan. Then, we and our friends took care of it. Everything was finished," he said.

 

Sumantri saw this pinjol phenomenon as the tip of the iceberg. Because the victim of the pinjol that was handled was a scholar from a major university in Indonesia. He considers that if people with higher education could be dragged into the trap of pinjol, it is also possible that hundreds of thousands of other people would experience the same thing.

 

Reporter: Aru Lego Triono

Editor: Sudarto Murtaufiq