Published on August 21, 2025, by TEMPO
KAI Management was asked not to just wait for assistance from Danantara in resolving the high-speed train debt problem.
By Dandi Bajuddin
PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) CEO Bobby Rasyidin said he will coordinate with Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment Management Agency (BPI Danantara) to discuss PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC)’s debts.
“We’re looking into the KCIC issue in particular. It’s a ticking time bomb,” Bobby said during a hearing with the lawmakers at Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR) at Nusantara I Building, Parliament Complex, on Wednesday (August 20, 2025), as quoted by Parliament TV’s YouTube channel.
In his first meeting with the lawmakers, Bobby was grilled with several questions regarding WHOOSH’s debt burden. The Head of Commission VI DPR Anggia Ermarini, for example, said KAI’s performance was rather good, but it has been impacted by the WHOOSH debt problem. “Kereta Api [Indonesia] is actually high-performing; it could be profitable, but because of WHOOSH, it’s running a deficit,” Anggia said.
Another member of the Commission VI of the House, Darmadi Durianto, shared a similar view. He assessed that the burden borne over the past two years has been quite substantial, especially since KAI has to cover the high-speed train project.
“If calculated, the financial burden for 2025, including KCIC losses, can reach more than Rp4 trillion. KCIC’s burden alone is already Rp950 billion, multiplied by two, that’s more than Rp4 trillion,” Darmadi said.
Meanwhile, another PDIP politician, Mufti Anam, suggested that KAI management not wait for assistance from Danantara. He asked the KAI CEO to take concrete steps to repay KCIC’s debt so that this problem can be addressed independently.
“We’re asking for WHOOSH’s roadmap. You must understand it well, otherwise, KAI’s debt burden will be enormous. Relying solely on Danantara to settle this debt is also not good, because this happened due to a wrong policy, which then became debt,” he said.
Responding to the inputs and criticism from the lawmakers, PT KAI CEO Bobby confirmed his commitment to resolving the high-speed train issue to avoid increasing the company’s financial burden. “Currently, there are many internal issues within KAI’s organization, and I need a week to understand the issues,” he said.
The Indonesia-China Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail Project was built during President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) administration. Jokowi inaugurated it on October 2, 2023, and KCIC began its commercial operations under the name WHOOSH on October 17, 2023.
The project was initially estimated to cost US$6.02 billion, but along the way, it incurred a cost overrun and escalated to $7.22 billion.
Of the total development cost, approximately 75 percent was financed through a loan from the China Development Bank, amounting US$5.415 billion. With an annual interest rate of 2 percent against the principal debt and a cost overrun rate of 3.4 percent a year, KCIC must pay US$120.9 billion a year.