Suspension of payment in the bankruptcy law regime in Indonesia when it is carried out following its dignity, then business actors can certainly avoid bankruptcy. The adverse effects of suspension of payment can become a trap for debtor business actors because, unfortunately, there are several conditions when the suspension of payment fails, the debtor automatically declared bankrupt. However, when the whole process of Indonesian Bankruptcy Law is thoroughly examined, the failure of Suspension of Payment is a sign that the debtor is suffering an economic failure, a contrario, when the debtor is still solvent, normatively it is still capable of continuing the business.
It is understandable for the pro-moratorium arguments that several regulations in the Indonesian Bankruptcy Law cannot overcome the pandemic Covid-19 situation. Thus, the proposal of the moratorium in Indonesian Bankruptcy Law implementation was needed. Several cases regarding the suspension of payment in Indonesia are increasing, especially in the 2021. Almost 480 cases spread in Jakarta and Surabaya.[1] Increasement case of the suspension of payment arises from the impact cause a “Moral Hazard” because of the easy requirement to submit a suspension of payment. Example: There is a misconception and no legal certainty in implementation of Article 2 (1) Indonesian Bankruptcy Law that make people easier to propose the suspension of payment to the court.
However, it has to be noticed that the “Moral Hazard” that happened because the arises of the case in the suspension of payment between 2020-2021 is certainly because of for some legal practitioners, unfortunately, become an instrument to create a more chaotic situation. They use the suspension of payment to ‘snare’ the debtors into bankruptcy. Solidly, the moratorium is not the answer to resolve this problem. The moratorium will arise many problems because the moratorium condition will not give legal certainty to the debtor, even the creditor.
The suspension of payment is important to make a reconciliation agreement between the debtor and the creditors. In the pandemic situation that affects the whole economy in Indonesia, absolutely the moratorium to suspend the Indonesian Bankruptcy Law is not relevant, based on the data that is collected by the National Workforce Survey,[2] people who was being fired because of the pandemic is calculated to 757.574 that divided into all cities or even the villages. Even in cities alone, there are 529.069 people also. In the villages, 228.505 people were being fired because of the impact of pandemic Covid-19.
The reconciliation as an output from suspension of payment lead to many positive things as the business has been rising significantly since the pandemic gone in 2022. In other words, the moratorium of the implementation of the Indonesian Bankruptcy Law currently is not relevant in Indonesia.
Author: Kukuh Leksono Suminaring Aditya, Widhayani Dian Pawestri, M. Hadi Shubhan, Trisadini Prasastinah Usanti
Published in: Russian Law Journal Vol. 11 No. 6 (2023) Scopus Q4
https://www.russianlawjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/3505
