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AKARTA: The Finance Ministry’s debt management office plans to introduce new sharia-compliant debt instruments, including project Islamic bonds (sukuk) designated for infrastructure projects and sharia short-term Treasury bills, according to an official.

Director of sharia financing policy at the Finance Ministry’s debt management office, Dahlan Siamat, said on Monday that the ministry was still assessing two possibilities for project sukuk. In the first scheme, proceeds of the sukuk issuance would be used to fund infrastructure projects as planned in the state budget, while the second would finance underlying projects.

“The first one is the most feasible because it doesn’t need new authorization...we have secured the principle approval from the President,” he told a press conference at his office in Jakarta.

The ministry was also studying plans to introduce one-year sharia and regular T-bills to meet demands for short-term sharia notes and to help the liquidity management of sharia banks, the debt office’s director general, Rahmat Waluyanto, said. — JP