Government Blocks IDR 50.14 Trillion Budget, Airlangga Confirms There Is An Allocation Of Social Assistance

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto opened his voice regarding the government's move to decide to continue the automatic adjustment policy or backup of Ministry/Institutional expenditures (KL) to be temporarily blocked in the implementation of the 2024 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).

This policy is contained in the Letter of the Minister of Finance Number S-182/MK.02/2023. The automatic adjustment policy for ministry/institution spending for the 2024 fiscal year is set at IDR 50.14 trillion.

Meanwhile, the budget temporarily blocked comes from the implementation of the 2024 State Budget. This step was taken to see the dynamic global geopolitical conditions.

Airlangga conveyed that the automatic adjustment policy plan had been submitted by the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati from the start, when the Budget Implementation List (DIPA) was submitted. According to him, one of these policies will be used for social assistance (Bansos).

"From the beginning, when the DIPA submission was delivered, there was an automatic adjustment. So when the DIPA was handed over electronically at the Palace, the Minister of Finance had already said it was an automatic adjustment. So various of these were used to anticipate various programs, including social assistance," he said after voting at TPS 05 Melawai, Wednesday, February 14, 2024.

Airlangga said Indonesia has a target in reducing extreme poverty to zero percent.

"We will also conduct a National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) in April. And we have a target of extreme poverty approaching zero, this is what is important," he said.

Airlangga said the funds from the automatic adjustment would also be used for the fertilizer subsidy program. According to him, the existence of fertilizer is very important because it has entered the planting season.

"This planting season is important to provide a budget. The President (Jokowi) has asked for an additional budget of IDR 14 trillion. Why should it be added? Because IDR 26 trillion is not enough. Every year the range is usually between IDR 35-IDR 40 trillion," he said.

Airlangga explained that with a new policy from the government, farmers can now take fertilizer rations for a year directly and the most important thing is to convince farmers that fertilizers are available so there is no need to wait for the budget for the budget cycle.

"For that we must be sure that the fertilizer exists. The most important thing for agriculture is the planting cycle. So there is no need to wait for the budget cycle. The planting cycle is important because it is now the planting season and we hope that future harvests will be safe," he said.