Head Of BPKP Says Domestic Products Successfully Compete With Imports In National E-Catalog

JAKARTA - Head of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) Muhammad Yusuf Ateh said that until the first quarter of 2022, e-catalogs were still dominated by imported products, both in terms of broadcast products and transaction realization.

However, said Ateh, now domestic products (PDN) have dominated the national e-catalog.

This increase was achieved in line with the issuance of presidential instruction (Inpres) 2 of 2022, conditions have changed.

"Alhamdulillah, as of June 13, 2022, the PDN that is broadcast in the e-catalog and its transactions for the first time have succeeded in competing with imported products," said Ateh at the National Coordination Meeting for Internal Control at the State Palace, Tuesday, June 14.

Ateh continued, based on BPKP's supervision of a target of IDR 400 trillion and commitments from ministries, institutions, local governments (KLD) and SOEs to absorb PDN worth IDR 720.88 trillion until June 13, 2022 as much as IDR 180.72 trillion had been absorbed or 25 percent of the commitment.

Although the number absorbed is not small, Ateh explained, there are several main problems that must be resolved so that absorption is greater.

"At the KLD planning stage it is difficult to identify expenditures that can be optimized to absorb domestic products. The absence of a comprehensive reference list regarding PDN with good TKDN is one of the causes of the difficulty in planning PDN spending," he said.

Meanwhile, at the implementation stage, said Ateh, there are still imported products that are absorbed by government spending even though there are already substituted PDN.

Based on a test sample of 853 imported products purchased, as many as 560 products or 66 percent are cheaper than local products.

"Meanwhile, for import spending due to the absence of substitute local products, it is necessary to immediately encourage the development of related local industries," he said.

On the same occasion, Ateh also ensured that he would oversee President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) desire for KLD to take advantage of government spending to absorb domestic products.

So that it can channel the maximum profit to domestic economic activities.

"In response to this, we have carried out intensive internal supervision to guard the discipline of government spending priorities for PDN," said Ateh.