Sri Mulyani Reminds That The Prabowo-Gibran Government Manages The State Budget Must Be Healthy, Don't Force It

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati opened her voice regarding the potential for changes in the 2025 State Budget (APBN) in the government of the President and Vice President-elect Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

Previously, member of committee IV DPD RI Tamsil Linrung mentioned whether there was certainty about the Revised State Budget (APBN-P) or not for the 2025 State Budget and whether it was based on the knowledge of Sri Mulyani as current finance minister.

Tamsil is worried that the APBN-P will only be carried out to carry out programs that become political promises, such as free lunch programs and the implementation of IKN development which causes the project to not stall.

"Will we make another change later because of the president's political promises that I don't think we can ignore, there is a free lunch, so it's impossible for us to ignore it," he said at the Working Meeting of Committee IV DPD RI, Tuesday, June 11.

Tamsil conveyed that the preparation of the State Budget in 2004, which was the transition period for the new government of the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri, to the 6th President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, there was a change in the APBN which was very different from the previous assumptions.

"The Minister (Sri Mulyani) must remember 2004, the state budget for extraordinary changes that we made by new members and the leadership of the Budget Agency, Mr. Suharso (now the Minister of National Development Planning/Bappenas) at that time, we just joined in, ma'am, so this is at the same time revealing the secret," he said.

On the same occasion, Sri Mulyani said, the APBN-P mechanism has been regulated in Law Number 17 of 2007, which gives the elected president the authority to make changes to the APBN that had been prepared by the previous government.

"We are carrying out our duties today to prepare the 2025 RAPBN, we also continue to coordinate and communicate with the team delivered by Pak Prabowo, so that we also try to understand and design it according to promises and various programs," said Sri Mulyani.

However, in the preparation of the 2025 RAPBN, Sri Mulyani said that she would continue to maintain that the APBN is managed in a healthy and sustainable manner in the medium and long term.

So that the State Budget remains an instrument that can help with development.

According to him, if the APBN is not managed properly and implemented only to run a program without paying attention to its sustainability, it will only create a crisis for a country.

"From the long-term side, the state budget must be maintained. So we must continue to find a middle-of-equilibrium way from various programs that are considered very urgent and important. And this is all because of the urgency of regional senators, do not let them accommodate so many problems, then the state budget is forced to do what is beyond its ability. Then the state budget will break itself," he explained.

He gave an example, one proof that the state budget was not well maintained, causing a country to crisis to occur in Argentina.

Sri Mulyani explained, in the 19th century the Argentine economy was progressing enough to make it a rich country, but because the APBN was not managed properly, causing a deficit that continued to swell, the country was trapped into a middle income trap.

"Perhaps ladies and gentlemen can see like Argentina, that in 100 years he has experienced a crisis and always has a source from the state budget that is not sustainable, so that if the early 19th century included the rich and most advanced countries, now he is experiencing a setback. This is what we will continue to communicate because the state budget is determined by a political process, we must also go through a proper political process as well," he said.