JAKARTA, Oct 9 (Reuters): Indonesia's central bank governor has announced that the cross border payment program between five Asean countries, namely Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia will be fully connected next year.
Governor Perry Warjiyo said at an Islamic economics event that Indonesia has connected its payments system with Thailand, and will do so soon with Malaysia and Singapore. He did not give details on the agreement with the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Indonesia raised 2.67 trillion rupiah (US$176.12 million) in an additional Islamic bonds sale this week, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The additional auction was held after the government only accepted 755 billion rupiah sukuk sales of a 5 trillion rupiah indicative target the day before.
In another matter, Indonesia, the world's biggest producer of palm oil, may extend an export levy waiver on the edible oil to the end of this year, its chief economic minister said on Tuesday.
Indonesia started waiving levies imposed on exports of palm oil products from mid-July to help reduce a stock glut that accumulated after a three-week export ban in late April, which was designed to stabilise local cooking oil prices.
The levy waiver policy is currently scheduled to end after Oct. 31.
"The plan is for an extension... until the end of the year," minister Airlangga Hartarto told reporters.
Indonesia collects export levies, on top of a separate export tax, to fund subsidies for its biodiesel and smallholders replanting programmes.
However, as palm oil prices have dropped and the cost of palm oil-based biodiesel is lower than fossil diesel fuel, Indonesia currently needs less funds for the biodiesel programme, - Reuters
