Juda Agung as Minister of Finance: President's Message: Fiscal-Monetary-Real Sector Must "Harmonize"

Minister of Finance Juda Agung after being inaugurated by President Prabowo Subianto/PHOTO: Teddy Kurniawan-VOI

JAKARTA - The Minister of Finance, Juda Agung, said President Prabowo Subianto emphasized that economic growth could not be achieved with policies that went their own way.

"Coordination between fiscal, monetary, and real sector policies must be made effective so that government programs really work," said Deputy Minister of Finance Juda Agung after being inaugurated at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Thursday, February 5.

"The point is that the President's desire to encourage economic growth requires coordination between fiscal policy and monetary policy as well as policies in the real sector," said Juda.

Juda explained that his assignment as Deputy Minister of Finance made him have to resign from the position of Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia. According to him, the two positions cannot be combined because they are two different authorities.

"Of course, it is impossible to combine two different authorities," he said.

Juda also denied that the appointment was sudden. "It was quite a long time ago, not suddenly," he said.

Regarding the division of tasks at the Ministry of Finance, Juda said the details had not been discussed. He plans to meet with Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa on Friday to detail the division of labor.

"Tomorrow I will meet him to discuss the details of his task allocation," said Juda.

When asked about monetary policy, Juda emphasized that it was still the domain of Bank Indonesia.

"As long as it is monetary policy, I think it is within the territory of Bank Indonesia," he said.

Regarding the issue of corruption cleaning in Customs and Taxes, Juda assessed the steps taken by the Minister of Finance Purbaya in the last four months as an effort to strengthen the system and reduce the risk of corruption. He emphasized that the legal process must continue to be encouraged, even though there was assistance from the Ministry of Finance.

"I think it's the right move," he said.

Juda added that his long experience at Bank Indonesia and the fiscal authority is expected to strengthen the synergy of the two policies. He also admitted that he had communicated with the Governor of BI.