Prabowo Pangkas Infrastructure Budget, This Is A Bisa Impact

JAKARTA - The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economist said that a series of impacts will occur from the policy of cutting infrastructure budgets in the era of President Prabowo Subianto's administration.

Indef Executive Director Esther Sri Astuti regretted the government's move to cut the infrastructure budget. Given, infrastructure spending itself is considered capable of encouraging state capital expenditures to move the wheels of the national economy.

In addition, infrastructure development also has a positive impact on industrial progress in various other sectors.

"In my opinion, cutting the infrastructure budget should be unfortunate because infrastructure spending can encourage economic growth in the long term," Esther told VOI, Monday, February 3.

Moreover, said Esther, infrastructure development can also encourage investment into Indonesia.

According to him, if this sector is neglected, there will be a risk of weakening competitiveness, making it difficult for Indonesia to attract investors both at home and abroad.

"This infrastructure can also encourage investment to enter Indonesia, such as infrastructure for providing water, electricity and energy," he said.

He did not deny that the main goal of cutting the budget in the infrastructure sector is to support the free nutritious food budget (MBG), which is President Prabowo Subianto's mainstay program.

"It seems that the current government's focus is on the MBG program," he added.

For your information, a number of ministries and institutions (k/l) under the Coordinating Ministry for Regional Infrastructure and Development (IPK) were recorded to be affected by significant budget cuts.

The Ministry of Public Works (PU), which focuses on building infrastructure projects, is reportedly affected by budget cuts of up to 80 percent or around Rp. 81 trillion of the total ceiling of Rp. 110.95 trillion. Thus, the budget allocation of the Ministry of Public Works is only Rp. 29.95 trillion.

Then, the Ministry of ATR/BPN was also affected by budget efficiency of IDR 2.6 trillion from the 2025 budget ceiling of IDR 6.4 trillion. The budget cuts of the Ministry of ATR/BPN itself reached 35 percent of the total ceiling.

In addition, the Archipelago Capital Authority (OIKN) also experienced budget efficiency of IDR 4.8 trillion or around 75 percent of the original budget of IDR 6.3 trillion.