No Longer Expenditure Expenditure, The Government Orders The 2023 State Budget To Encourage Productivity

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that all 2023 APBN expenditures had been normalized after adjustments had previously been made to overcome the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If we talk about the 2023 transition, then all spending will return to the ministry/institution and there will be no such thing as the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program," he said at the National Coordination Meeting for the Transition of Handling COVID-19, quoted on Friday, January 27.

The Minister of Finance explained that the 2023 APBN expenditure was designed to reach IDR 3,061.2 trillion or slightly decreased from the temporary realization in 2022 which reached IDR 3,090.8 trillion. This happened because the government no longer paid for vaccines and paid patient claims.

APBN 2023 will be directed to encourage productivity and protect the community. Adequate budget support is needed to maintain people's purchasing power and flexibility in budgeting is still being carried out," he said.

The Minister of Finance also said that this year there is more space in fiscal instruments because fuel prices tend to fall. In detail, the state treasurer revealed that the planned education budget is IDR 612.2 trillion, the health budget is IDR 178.7 trillion, and the social protection budget is IDR 476 trillion.

Then, the food security budget is Rp. 104.2 trillion, the energy security budget is Rp. 341.3 trillion, including for subsidies, the infrastructure budget is planned for Rp. 392.1 trillion, and the security defense budget is Rp. 316.9 trillion.

"So this is a situation that we continue to be flexible in the APBN following the challenges faced by our country. So we hope that in 2023 we will continue to recover the economy, so we are optimistic. We continue to maintain stability and also reduce inequality, spending on social assistance and various health education to reduce gaps, and economic recovery can still be maintained and remain resilient," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.