Court seizes Caltex accounts at local banks

The state court in Pekanbaru has seized PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia's accounts at the branch office of Bank Mandiri after the oil giant lost in legal fight with a local company, Media Indonesia reported last week.

In the execution, the court however only found about Rp 11 million and US$1,300 in the account of the oil company in the bang.

The daily said that the court accepted the requirement from PT Buckwar John Baspuri to pay a fine to Rp 230 million and $760,000 against PT Caltex for breaching the contract. But the oil giant's spokesman Poedio Oetomo said that the oil company rejected the court decision and had appealed the Supreme Court to annul the local court's decision.

According to Riau Pos, Caltex had submitted a new proof that it had never breached the contract with PT Buckwar. In addition, he said, the court's decision to impose an annual interest rate of 60 percent was certainly unfair.

PT Buckwar took Caltex to the court after the oil company unilaterally reduced the payment for the cars leased to the oil giant. The oil company's action was made after Bukcwar failed to deliver some of the cars as scheduled. (*)