IMPLEMENTATION OF CREDIT RELAXATION POLICY ON SMALL AND MEDIUM MICRO BUSINESSMEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC PERIOD

Corona virus or Covid-19, who does not know the virus at this time? Beginning in 2020 all countries in the world have been in an uproar with the spread of the Corona virus or Covid-19 which is the first virus found in the city of Wuhan China at the end of 2019 precisely in December 2019. To prevent the spread of this virus outbreak, one of the government solutions Indonesia is restricting social and economic activities in March 2020. The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus has not only impacted the safety and health of the Indonesian people, but also greatly affected the education sector and the community's economy. Many people experience financial difficulties in meeting their daily needs due to the lack of income earned. Some even get no income at all. This is not only felt by the lower classes of society, but also felt by the people in the upper classes as well as business people both small, medium and high businesses. In the trade sector also began to experience a turnover in business activity. This automatically makes traders or business people who have credit at the bank, unable to pay installments and even pay off their debts. Because the income of these business actors depends on the business activities they live.

In this case, the Indonesian government continues to strive to help people who are experiencing difficulties with various efforts. One of them in terms of banking, especially in the field of financing and credit. President Jokowi ordered the Financial Services Authority (OJK) that the Banking institutions and Financing institutions provide policies in the form of suspension of vehicle installments for taxi drivers, motorcycle taxi, online motorcycle taxis, or fishermen. The President requested that the Banks are prohibited from chasing the Debtors, let alone to use debt collection services. Another policy is Credit Restructuring or what we know as Credit Relaxation which is intended for Micro, Small and Medium Business. The scheme for implementing credit relaxation includes lower interest rates, lower loan interest, extend credit periods, and extend grace periods.

With the issuance of OJK Regulation No. 11 / POJK.03 / 2020, this was originally expected to be able to help and provide relief space for Micro and Small and Medium Business as Debtors who have business credit loans to the Banking. This policy is a policy that is against the flow of the business cycle (countercyclical). But doing this is expected to maintain economic stability. On the one hand, the bank is demanded to be able to be responsible and careful in implementing the granting of credit relaxation to avoid mis-targeting. But on the other hand the community considers that the policy of credit relaxation for business actors affected by Covid-19 is considered still unclear (ambiguous). Because in the OJK Regulation No. 11 / POJK.03 / 2020 concerning the economic stimulus impact of Covid-19, it is not clearly and explicitly regulated regarding the form of credit relaxation. This form of credit relaxation is fully left to the Banking or Financing institution to assess the ability of each debtor. So that the unclear rules ultimately lead to various potential noise among business actors.

The existence of policies that are still confusing has resulted in some business actors experiencing distortions from the implementation of the government policy. In fact, there are still many business actors experiencing difficulties in applying for Credit Relaxation. In the field there are many inter-bank imbalances, where there are banks that are easy to provide relaxation, some are difficult to provide Credit Relaxation. There are still many business actors who are being chased by banks because they are unable to pay credit installments. But the bank seems to not want to know and complicate with various reasons. Why does this happen ??? At the time of the issuance of the policy, both the Government, the OJK and the Banking sector need to conduct clear socialization to the public or business actors so there is no confusion. Giving rise to different interpretations. Because there are still many people or business people consider that the Credit Relaxation policy is intended for all Small and Medium Micro businessmen.