The Government Releases PEN Books As A Record Of State Money Management During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Deputy Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara (Photo: Screenshot of the Ministry of Finance's Youtube)

JAKARTA – The government through the Ministry of Finance today conducted a soft launch of the PEN book with the theme History of the Birth of the National Economic Recovery Program (PEN) at Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, North Sulawesi.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Suahasil Nazara, who was present on the occasion said that the COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented and extraordinary event that Indonesia had never faced since the establishment of this republic.

According to him, since COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019 and WHO declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, Indonesia then recorded its first case on March 2, 2020, and is still ongoing today.

"With limited knowledge about COVID-19, the only way to stop its spread is to limit the movement of people, which has an impact on decreasing economic activity", said Suahasil in a written statement on Monday, October 3.

He added that this condition had an impact on the global and national economic slowdown which reduced state revenues. On the other hand, there is an increase in state spending because the government needs to deal with the impact of the pandemic by trying to maintain the safety and welfare of the community, as well as the business world.

"Consequently, there is a widening of the budget deficit and an increase in the need for financing through debt", he said.

Suahasil explained that changes were then made with one of the important milestones being allowing the state budget deficit to exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

"We have to make the economy if it has to subside a little, it will subside but it must not die. Meaning as soon as there is an opportunity, it goes up again. If this is currently the case, it is because the government made sure it can live again. This is what we recorded. There are 17 chapters in this book, in each chapter we write about economics to social issues as well as mental health issues and how the bureaucracy has changed", he said.

Furthermore, the Sri Mulyani representative revealed that there were also two main dimensions in the stimulus for handling COVID-19. First, is for handling health and controlling outbreaks as the main source of the crisis. The second dimension is the handling of the economic crisis as a domino effect of the health crisis, through the PEN program.

"What has happened in the last 2.5 years, we hope will not happen again. We record this valuable lesson, we learn it and we prepare it for Indonesia in future generations. Hopefully, this book will be a contribution to the country, to the community, and to the future of all of us", concluded the Deputy Minister of Finance, Suahasil Nazara.