APPSI Highlights TKD, Purbaya Asks Regional Heads To Improve Budget Governance

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadives opened his voice after his office was visited by a number of governors who are members of the Association of Indonesian Provincial Governments (APPSI).

Meanwhile, these regional heads expressed their objection to the policy of cutting the Transfer to Regions (TKD) budget.

According to Purbaya, this condition is natural considering that the current budget allocation has indeed decreased.

However, he stressed the importance for local governments to first improve the quality of their spending, which has been considered less than optimal.

"Everything depends on the regional head again in the future. I am a new government, their image is not good enough in the eyes of the leaders above, so if they can improve the image, there is no objection," he said at his office, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, October 7.

Purbaya explained that the funds allocated to the regions were not actually reduced nominally.

"Sekarang sebenarnya dari uang enggak berkuran Rp1.300 triliun dilempar ke daerah. Hanyan prosesnya belum terlalu jelas sehingga mereka juga bertanya-tanya apa betul uang itu masuk ke daerah. Nanti kita cek seperti apa sebenarnya," tuturnya.

He said he would monitor the absorption of the budget until the end of this year and if the realization of the budget was still low and many projects had not been completed, the addition of the budget would be difficult.

However, Purbaya added, if the absorption is good and the construction goes on time without finding a violation, then the proposal to increase the budget is worth considering.

"Because they protested, this is the centralization of the results of reform. Why is it missing again? Why do you want to be centralized? I don't know what kind of political view it is. I'm just the minister of payment, if this is the case I'm just a payor," he explained.

According to him, regional success in managing the budget can be strong evidence to restore the central government's trust in regional autonomy.

"If they are good they can convince the leadership, right. I also have additional weapons to explain that it should be like this again. This means that maybe the centralization is not very bad, but the implementation during development where there may be an image, there is an impression that is not good. There is an impression, yes," he said.

According to Purbaya, if you really want to build the region, the budget management should have been more orderly, there were no leaks here and there and one of the main problems is that it is not coincident with the use of the budget

He conveyed that in the dialogue, regional heads conveyed various aspirations, including requests for the central government to bear all budget needs, including employee salaries.

"If he asks everything to be borne by me, it's a normal request, but we will calculate what my state budget's capabilities are like. Moreover, in the first nine months the economy has slowed down, yes it goes up and down, but it tends to go down, right. So, if you ask now, I can't," said Purbaya.

Previously, a number of governors from various provinces who were members of the Association of Indonesian Provincial Governments (APPSI) expressed their objection to the Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadive, regarding the cutting of transfer funds to the regions (TKD) in the 2026 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget Draft (RAPBN).

For information, the TKD allocation in the 2026 RAPBN is planned at IDR 692,995 trillion, or a decrease of around 24.7 percent compared to the previous year which reached IDR 919.9 trillion.

This means that there is a cut of around Rp. 226.9 trillion.

Meanwhile, as many as 24 governors and deputy governors were present at the Head Office of the Ministry of Finance, Jakarta, to voice their aspirations. The regional heads who attended included Jambi, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, Bangka Belitung Islands, Banten, Riau Islands, Central Java, Central Sulawesi, North Maluku, West Sumatra, DI Yogyakarta, Papua Mountains, Bengkulu, Aceh, North Sumatra, Lampung, South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, Southwest Papua, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, East Java, Gorontalo, and South Sumatra.

The Chairperson of APPSI and Jambi Governor Al Haris explained that the meeting was a means for governors to express their concerns about the decline in TKD which could potentially affect the implementation of regional programs.

"Of course, many people feel the impact of the TKD (cutting), including areas that may find it difficult to pay for employee spending, very large. Moreover, there is a need to pay P3K and so on. Well, this has an extraordinary impact on the 2026 APBD," he said when met at the Central Ministry of Finance Building, Tuesday, October 7.

Dia mengakui, pemerintah pusat memiliki berbagai program dengan alokasi anggaran sekitar Rp1.300 triliun yang akan dijalankan di daerah tahun depan.

Namun demikian, menurutnya, pemerintah daerah belum memperoleh penjelasan mendetail mengenai pelaksanaan program-program tersebut.

“Kalau daerah PAD-nya kecil, yang banyak menggantungkan nasib dengan TKDD, maka sulit mereka untuk mengembangkan daerahnya,” jelasnya.

He admitted that the central government has various programs with a budget allocation of around Rp. 1,300 trillion which will be implemented in the regions next year.

However, according to him, the local government has not received a detailed explanation regarding the implementation of these programs.

"If the PAD area is small, which depends heavily on the fate of the TKDD, it will be difficult for them to develop their area," he explained.