JAKARTA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government on Thursday asked multinationals operating in the country to abandon paying salaries of staffs in U.S. dollar, a fresh move aiming to pare downside risks of global uncertainty on rupiah, a minister said here.

The step came after the government urged exporters to convert their greenbacks into rupiah and applied higher levies on importation of over 1,000 products to help relieve pressure on rupiah.

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stressed that the payment of salaries in rupiah is expected to drift lower demand of the dollar which may help pare down weakening of rupiah against the U.S. dollar.

"We are persuading (foreign) firms to convert transaction in U.S. dollar into rupiah so that the unnecessary demand on the dollar will decrease," she said.

The conversion, the minister said, is expected to be implemented maximally so that it would drift higher foreign exchange reserve and bolster economy in Indonesia.

Rupiah had slid to its weakest level since 1998, before bouncing back, fetching 14,839 against the greenback on Thursday, according to the central bank data.