Sri Mulyani Cuts Ministries/Institutions Budget For IDR 26 Trillion, Business Travel And Vehicle Spending Are Cut

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said the increase in spending on health, social protection, priority programs, and incentives made the government refocus the 2021 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).

"This refocusing was taken in order to finance the need for spending which was increasing very high", she said virtually after holding the Plenary Cabinet Session, Monday, July 5.

According to the Minister of Finance, this budget refocusing or review has succeeded in obtaining funds of IDR 26.2 trillion from a number of ministries/agencies (K/L) and an additional IDR 6 trillion from the allocation of village fund transfers.

"This budget is then used for handling COVID-19, both for purchasing vaccines, testing/tracing, as well as for patient care costs", she said.

The Minister of Finance ensures that this refocusing will not interfere with ministry and agency spending because it is outside the operational budget, personnel expenditure, multi-year spending for contracts, spending for economic recovery, and disaster spending.

"It's not all affected by refocusing", she said.

Meanwhile, the expenditure categories included in the budget adjustment scheme include official travel, honorarium, meeting packages, service spending, building construction spending, vehicle spending, and contract expenditures that have not been budgeted for and may not be completed this year.

"The list is the one that has been reviewed for use and allocated for handling the pandemic and economic recovery", she said.

For information, Sri Mulyani has also previously 'dismantled' the 2021 national economic recovery (PEN) budget by shifting some budgets to more priority sectors.

In her report, the Minister of Finance stated that there were three sectors that experienced an increase in the budget with the other two sectors experiencing a decline.

Meanwhile, the three sectors whose budget was increased are social protection from IDR 148.27 trillion to IDR 149.08 trillion, the health sector from IDR 172.84 trillion to IDR 185.98 trillion, and business incentives from IDR 56.73 trillion to 62.83 trillion.

Meanwhile, the two PEN sectors whose funds were cut are MSME and corporate support from IDR 193.74 trillion to IDR 178.47 trillion. Then, priority programs from IDR 127.85 trillion fell to IDR 123.08 trillion.

However, this PEN budget revision does not change the amount from the previous 2021 APBN ceiling, which is still IDR 699.4 trillion.