JAKARTA - Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi confirmed on February 10 that Indonesia will use state budget funds to pay Whoosh, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail debt.

Speaking to journalists at the Gambir Station in Central Jakarta, Hadi said that the technical mechanism for the payments was still being finalized and under discussion. Danantara CEO Rosan Perkasa Roeslani will lead technical negotiations with Chinese creditors.

President Prabowo Subianto has committed to paying Rp 1.2 trillion annually toward the project's Rp 116 trillion total debt, but the decision marks a departure from the project's original promise.

When President Joko Widodo launched Whoosh in 2016, he pledged it would not burden taxpayers through a business-to-business arrangement and claimed that the government would not provide guarantees even if the project ran into trouble. 

But that promise evaporated as costs ballooned from an initial $5.5 billion to $7.3 billion, with 75 percent financed by China Development Bank at 2 percent interest on principal and 3.4 percent on cost overruns.

Japan initially offered 0.1 percent interest for a government-to-government loan, but Indonesia opted for China's higher-rate business-to-business model. Due to this, the Whoosh high-speed rail reportedly cost about US$52 million per kilometre, much higher than China’s typical US$17–21 million/km.

Despite transporting over 12 million passengers since its October 2023 launch, the railway operates at a loss. Daily ridership averages 20,000-30,000 passengers, with annual interest payments of Rp 2 trillion exceeding projected yearly revenue of Rp 1.5 trillion.

Due to this, Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission has launched a preliminary investigation in 2025 into alleged financial and procurement irregularities.