Alhamdulillah, Sri Mulyani Canceled Withdrawal Of IDR 100 Trillion Debt This Year

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (Photo: Screenshot of CNBC channel)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia's relatively fast economic recovery has prompted the government to re-calibrate the projected financing of the 2022 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).

According to the Minister of Finance, this has good implications for the management of state finances in the long term. This is because the financing (debt) released by the government is usually dominated by a long tenor.

"Yesterday we have calculated at least Rp. 100 trillion for us to lower it again, maybe it could be more," he said in a virtual discussion on the CNBC channel, Tuesday, March 22.

The Minister of Finance explained that this signal of optimism was also influenced by the condition of state income which had grown since last year, thereby reducing the gap in financing needs.

"Last year we reduced the issuance of bonds because our deficit, which should have been Rp1,000 trillion, fell to around Rp800 trillion. State income is very high, such as high tax revenue, PNBP (non-tax state revenue) is also high, so we don't need to issue bonds abroad first," he said.

For information, this year's budget deficit is set at Rp868.02 trillion. This amount is planned to be met through debt financing of IDR 973.6 trillion according to the 2022 state budget ceiling.

Meanwhile, until January 2022, the government's debt position was Rp. 6,919.15 trillion or equivalent to 39.63 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This value is still quite loose from the constitutional provisions that limit the debt ratio not to exceed 60 percent of GDP.