The Ministry Of Finance Approves An Additional Budget Of IDR 25 Trillion For The Ministry Of Health

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) has approved an additional budget for the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) of around IDR 25 trillion, to finance COVID-19 patients whose numbers continue to rise.

Ministry of Finance's Expert Staff for State Finance Kunta Wibawa explained that the proposed budget was to be included in the Budget Implementation List (DIPA).

"The Ministry of Health's request for Rp25 trillion is for DIPA, it is for the financing of COVID-19 patients. Because what was said earlier, the numbers keep going up, right, this is to keep financing there," said Kunta in a video conference with journalists, Friday, July 3.

Based on Presidential Regulation Number 72 of 2020, the Ministry of Health's budget for handling COVID-19 is pegged at IDR78.51 trillion. From the Ministry of Finance's data, the Ministry of Health's budget absorption until May 2020 was only IDR 1.66 trillion.

The additional allocation of funds comes from the budget ceiling for handling a pandemic in the health sector of Rp. 87.55 trillion. The health sector budget consists of Rp.65.8 trillion for handling COVID-19, Rp.5.9 trillion for medical personnel, Rp0.3 trillion for death benefits, Rp.3.5 trillion for JKN contributions, Rp.3.5 trillion for the Task Force, and tax incentives in the health sector. Rp9.05 trillion.

Until June 24, 2020, said Kunta, the realization of the fiscal stimulus for handling COVID-19 in the health sector had only reached 4.68 percent. He admitted that this budget absorption was still low.

"Indeed, if we look at it from the point of view, the total is still low but the development is quite good because last week it was still 1.63 percent," he said.

According to Kunta, the realization in the health sector includes claims for reimbursement of treatment costs for COVID-19 patients from 750 hospitals or 62.5 percent, as well as incentives for 21,080 health workers or 11.82 percent.

Furthermore, Kunta said, the government had seen the constraints that caused the budget distribution to be still small. According to him, the existing constraints include the gap between financial and physical realization in society. Thus, it is necessary to accelerate the billing administration process.

"Actually, we have already worked, for example regarding the handling of COVID-19 patients, but the money is not yet 100 percent," he said.

According to Kunta, currently the government has made a breakthrough, namely by using a cash advance that can be distributed even though the documents are incomplete.

"So the documents are incomplete, it's okay, then we just issue the down payment while the documents are fulfilled so that governance is maintained," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson of Commission IX Melki Laka Lena explained that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) 's warning a few days ago regarding the small realization of the budget for handling COVID-19 in the health sector which was only 1.63 percent of the total Rp75 trillion had to be placed in the right context.

Melki explained that the budget for handling COVID-19 in the health sector has increased from Rp. 75 trillion to Rp. 87.55 trillion. Of the total health sector budget, the Ministry of Health submitted a budget of Rp. 54.56 trillion, which was approved by the Ministry of Finance for only Rp. 25.73 trillion.

Of the total budget, the budget that has been included in the Ministry of Health's Budget Implementation List (DIPA) is IDR 1.96 trillion with a realization of 17.6 percent, namely IDR 331.29 billion for incentives for central health workers, and IDR 14.1 billion for health worker mortality benefits.

"The remaining Rp23.77 trillion budget is still in the process of revising the DIPA from the Ministry of Finance, which means that this budget has not yet entered the DIPA of the Ministry of Health so it cannot be realized," he said.

The House of Representatives Commission IX, said Melki, is very concerned about the realization of the budget for handling COVID-19 which is still not optimal, but the current DPR Commission IX can only oversee the realization of the budget which is directly managed by the Ministry of Health.