Regional Government Money Settles in Banks IDR 278 Trillion, Jokowi Asks to Spend Immediately

President Jokowi. (BPMI Setpres-Lukas)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo reminded regional heads to immediately spend the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD), which is still sitting in banks around IDR 278 trillion. These efforts can spur the circulation of money and economic activity.

"While there are governors, regents, mayors; this I remind you, we are looking for money from outside to come in, there is an increased circulation of money; but our own money that is transferred to the regions is not used", Jokowi said at the Coordination Meeting National Investment in Jakarta, Wednesday 30 November, confiscated by Antara.

Jokowi said this morning he had asked Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, for data. From this data, it is known that there are Rp. 278 trillion in regional government funds that are still stored in banks until the end of November 2022.

Jokowi considers that the IDR 278 trillion funds are very large if it is only kept in a bank. In fact, if these funds are spent, it will grow the economy in the regions, especially now that the global economic situation is under pressure.

Supposedly, said Jokowi, the fiscal stimulus in the form of funds from the APBD was immediately disbursed to spur people's economic activities.

"I have ordered the Minister of Home Affairs (Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian), please check this one by one, what are the problems", he said.

He also questioned why APBD funds in banks at the end of November 2022 had increased to IDR 278 trillion. In previous years, he said, the amount of APBD funds that were still kept in banks during a similar period was only around IDR 210-220 trillion.

"This has jumped very high. This is a cost of money like this. The cost of money is really big", he said.

In addition, he also mentioned that the realization of new central government spending was only 76 percent, while regional spending was only 62 percent. He asked for the realization of spending to be accelerated immediately so that it would benefit the community's economic activities.

"It's already December, you know, tomorrow (Thursday) is December; be careful. That means, we are scrambling to find capital inflows, through investments, but the money in our own pockets is not invested. This is a big mistake", Jokowi said.