Sources Of IKN Funds Unclear, Controlled Or Canceled?

JAKARTA - The National Capital Development Project (IKN) in East Kalimantan must be supervised by all parties because the source of the funds is considered unclear. The Ministry of Finance revealed that the State Capital Development Fund (IKN) from the APBN was only disbursed for the provision of basic infrastructure and the core areas of the IKN government center.

For information, IKN development will be carried out in five stages for the period until 2045. The government calls the development in the first stage crucial because it focuses on basic infrastructure or buffers for new IKN areas.

For this reason, funding for IKN development will not only come from the APBN, but also from non-APBN sources. The non-APBN sources include Government and Business Entity Cooperation (PPP), private investment, and BUMN.

However, the origin of this non-APBN funding source is unknown. So how to get IDR 466 trillion in funds to build IKN?

"This must be monitored. The reckless budgeting process is dangerous," said Member of Commission II of the DPR RI from the PKS Faction, Mardani Ali Sera, Thursday, February 3.

According to the chairman of the PKS DPP, if the budgeting process for the IKN Law is not supervised by the public, then in turn the efficiency and effectiveness of the IKN is prone to be sacrificed. In addition, he said, the quality of the IKN development process as promised by the government could be threatened.

"The community needs to jointly oversee this process," he said.

Mardani also asked the government to prioritize transparency in terms of IKN funding in East Kalimantan. This is because the construction of IKN is estimated to require funding of almost half a quadrillion.

"You must be transparent and follow procedures. You must not violate the rules," he concluded.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO) Dedi Kurnia Syah said that the lack of clarity in the IKN development budget marked IKN as a project that was forced to run in any way.

Dedi said that the state seemed to be disobedient to priority programs that should have been more prepared.

He explained that politically, IKN was needed as a form of development effort. The goal is not to be too crowded in Jakarta.

Even so, according to him, completely transferring Jakarta's functions to IKN should require further analysis.

"Especially if the situation is forced, the public will view IKN as a political program that is intended to build a prestigious regime, not built on the basis of the benefit of the nation," said Dedi, Thursday, February 3.

Dedi also reminded, if it turns out that you don't have a definite source of funds to build IKN, it is better for the government to make a decision to cancel the IKN Law and plan it more fairly.

"If the government does not have definite resources, then it is not too late to cancel the IKN Law," concluded Dedi.

Previously, at a press conference on Monday, January 24, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto stated that the government did not plan to include new IKN development projects in the PEN Program.

He explained that the IKN project development funds would use the budget allocation from the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR).

"Regarding IKN, the budget is in PUPR and it is estimated that the first phase will require IDR 45 trillion of funds, but gradually, depending on needs and progress," he said at a press conference, Monday, January 24.

He said that the budget allocation for the PEN Program in 2022 was IDR 451.64 trillion, for three clusters.

The budget for health is allocated IDR 125.97 trillion and social protection to IDR 150.8 trillion.

In addition, the government allocates the PEN budget for economic strengthening of IDR 174.87 trillion, related to infrastructure, food security, information and communication technology, MSMEs, PMN, and tax incentives.

"So I said earlier that the funds that are in PUPR and the PEN program now don't have a theme for IKN," he explained.