Trade Minister Zulhas Admits Sad, Ministry Budget Drops In 2025

JAKARTA - Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan admitted that he was sad because the 2025 budget of the Ministry of Trade had decreased. The decrease in budget was recorded at 15.96 percent of the 2024 budget.

Just for information, the Ministry of Trade received an allocation of the 2025 budget ceiling of IDR 1.65 trillion. This figure is much lower than IDR 314 billion from the 2024 budget ceiling of IDR 1.96 trillion.

"I was sad that my budget fell a lot in 2025," he said in a Working Meeting with Commission VI of the DPR RI, at the DPR Building, Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Wednesday, September 9.

The man who is familiarly called Zulhas also detailed the budget allocation in 2025. For the management support program of IDR 1.37 trillion, the Domestic Trade program of IDR 127 billion, and the Foreign Trade program of IDR 153.4 billion.

"There are a lot going down. There are already a lot of lack," he said.

Zulhas also complained about the low budget allocation he got for 2025. He also compared the amount of the budget received by the Ministry of Trade in 2020 amounting to Rp3.3 trillion. On that calculation, the Ministry of Trade's budget fell by about 50 percent.

"From 2020, the chairman has dropped half, because in 2020 it is now only IDR 3.3 trillion, now it is only IDR 1.6 trillion," he said.

Zulhas also revealed that the realization of the budget in 2024 has reached Rp1.12 trillion. This figure is equivalent to 57.34 percent of the total budget ceiling of Rp1.96 trillion.

Furthermore, Zulhas admitted that he had faced challenges in absorption of the budget at the Ministry of Trade, namely funds for assisting the revitalization of the people's market amounting to Rp68 billion which is still in the development process.

There are also activities that are carried out according to third parties, this is usually September-October. But lastly, usually in December, the Ministry of Trade is almost 99 percent (budget absorption)," he said.