Cutting The Brutal Budget, Eight Percent Economic Growth Is Just A Dream

JAKARTA In 100 days President Prabowo Subianto's leadership made aggressive steps in state spending, namely saving the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN). The budget efficiency target even reached Rp306.69 trillion.

Prabowo issued Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 1 of 2025 concerning Expenditure Efficiency in the Implementation of the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget and Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget for Fiscal Year 2025.

Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira said that budget efficiency has a significant impact, especially at the local government level. One of Bhima's highlights is the possibility of worsening public services, cutting honorary staff, delayed regional infrastructure or even completely suspended due to cutting regional transfer funds.

Prabowo's government does need a lot of money to carry out its program. One of them is the free-gising ambitious project (MBG) which is the campaign promise for Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Therefore, massive savings were also made. This was acknowledged by the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.

"The president conveyed that in the instructions to focus the budget so that it is more efficient and the use of the budget will be aimed at steps that are indeed felt by the community directly, such as eating free nutrition," Sri Mulyani said at the KSSK I 2025 Periodic Meeting Results Press Conference at the Ministry of Finance, Central Jakarta, on January 24.

The government also needs big money to repay its debt. In the first year of his administration, Prabowo inherited debts due to Rp. 8000.33 trillion which must be paid in 2025.

Not to mention the interest on debt this year alone reached Rp522.9 trillion. This means that the pile of debt in the era of President Joko Widodo reached Rp1,353 trillion and had to be repaid in the first year of Prabowo's leadership.

Meanwhile, the things included in the cuts include official travel expenditures, ceremonial activities, assessments, comparative studies, publications, and seminars.

Along with the issuance of Presidential Instruction Number 1, wild issues around ministries/agencies (K/L) emerged. The Ministry of Public Works complained that the budget had suddenly disappeared of Rp. 81 trillion.

Not to mention the 13th and 14th salaries of civil servants (PNS) which were rumored to have been removed this year, although for the time being the state servants could breathe a sigh of relief because the news was denied by the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.

Director of Celios Bhima Yudhistira said, in addition to spending on stationery, spending on ceremonial activities and discussions is often a source of waste. However, according to him, the budget efficiency decision is an irony because Prabowo formed a very large cabinet, which of course requires a lot of money as well.

To note, Prabowo was assisted by 48 ministers, 56 deputy ministers, and five heads of agencies. Meanwhile, the previous presidents were assisted by around 30 ministers.

"This is contradictory to the save plan," said Bhima to VOI.

Meanwhile, despite supporting the budget efficiency of the Director of Economics Celios, Nailul Huda said the government should reflect on other countries, such as Vietnam, which cut the number of ministries to increase budget efficiency.

Based on Celios' analysis, the additional number of ministers and deputy ministers in this fat cabinet has the potential to increase budget waste to IDR 1.95 trillion over the next five years. This does not include a waste due to the increase in spending on goods for the construction of new office facilities or institutional buildings.

For this reason, according to Nailul Huda, saving the state budget should start by reducing personnel from the Red and White Cabinet.

"Starting with eliminating deputy ministers. One of the posts that I think is useless is the deputy minister, some even have three deputy ministers. Useless!" said Huda.

"Then, comb unnecessary experts, especially in places where state officials have been 'tiring places'. Such positions should be streamlined," Huda added.

Huda also said that Prabowo's decision to achieve budget efficiency brutally has the potential to damage public services and the needs of the wider community. This can have a negative impact on the country's economy.

He also asked Prabowo not to dream of bringing the Indonesian economy to fly eight percent because an inaccurate budget cut actually made Indonesia's economic growth stagnate, even difficult to reach five percent.

According to Huda, the government needs to first comb through any programs that are not in accordance with the budget. In addition, he also suggested the evaluation process and consider the impact if efficiency is carried out.

The efficiency that according to Huda will not have a major impact on the community, including the Capital Nusantara (IKN) project and the national strategic project infrastructure program (PSN), while those related to public services and the needs of the wider community do not need budget efficiency.

"If the negative impact is too large, then there is an adjustment to reject budget efficiency. Because if it is related to public services, the public will also be negatively affected," said Huda.

Huda emphasized that there are still many programs that actually don't need big money, but get a jumbo budget. This kind of budget plan generates an inefficient budget. Meanwhile, on the other hand, there is a program that requires large fund support that is not approved by the state leadership. This shows an inconsistency between the program and the budget obtained by K/L.

"Instead of a good program running, the road is a bad program in planning and implementing it," Huda concluded.