GOVT ECONOMIC STIMULI MISS TARGET: BUSINESSMAN

Jakarta, Feb 11 (ANTARA) - Businesses have considered that the government fiscal stimulus given in the form of income tax cuts to prevent layoffs would not meet its target, a businessman said.
"Companies lay off their workers because they receive no orders for their goods, so that they could not carry out production," Chairman of the Indonesian Businessmen Association (Apindo), Sofjan Wanandi said here on Wednesday.
He said that he had asked trade unions whether the tax cuts would benefit them or not. "Most of them said it would not benefit them. Maybe it would help the service sector such as banks but not the labour-intensive sector," he said.
He said that the government stimuli were actually provided in an effort to prevent layoffs. But the real problem being faced by businesses was not a matter of layoffs but of how to obtain orders so that their production process would go on.
"So, what the government has to do is to provide employment for the people so that they would be able to buy products we are producing," Sofyan Wanandi said.
He said that companies had begun laying off their workers quietly and up to now the sector which had done most layoffs was the plantations.
"Most of laid off workers were contract and daily workers. The manufacturing sector such as the textile industry has also laid off their workers. In the near future these layoffs would be followed by the automotive and motorcycle industries," he said.***2***