Budget For Education Is The Highest, Sri Mulyani Reveals Details Of IDR 282 Trillion Expenditure Realization In Two Months

JAKARTA – Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani gave a presentation related to the use of the State Budget (APBN) for state spending until February 2022. In her explanation, she revealed that the realization in the first two months of this year reached IDR 282.7 trillion or 10.4 percent of the ceiling of the 2022 APBN.

According to the Minister of Finance, the focus of state spending is directed at improving the quality of human resources through development in the fields of health, social protection, education, and development priorities to encourage economic growth.

"This all illustrates that the state budget continues to play a role in restoring the economy and continuing to handle the pandemic. Therefore, it is important to restore the economy through infrastructure development, to restore the economy by supporting MSMEs, to restore the economy through state spending, and also to save people from a health perspective, although the numbers are starting to decline," she said in a statement quoted on Wednesday, March 30.

The Minister of Finance detailed that the goods expenditure book up to February 2022 reached Rp. 14 trillion. This number has decreased compared to last year, which is claimed to indicate an improving condition with spending on health care needs decreasing.

"Meanwhile, capital expenditures are directed at completing priority infrastructure projects and supporting the modernization of defense and security equipment with a realization of IDR 8.9 trillion," she said.

Meanwhile, the social protection program (perlinsos) spending was driven by the distribution of energy subsidies and the distribution of social assistance, among others through the Smart Indonesia Program, Contribution Assistance Recipients, Family Hope Program, and Basic Food Cards to maintain people's purchasing power with a record of IDR 49 trillion.

Meanwhile, the realization of the education budget increased quite significantly from the previous few years driven by the realization of the education budget through Transfers to Regions and Village Funds (TKDD).

"Education budget spending has increased very high, reaching IDR 57.7 trillion or a 35.8 percent increase," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.