Sri Mulyani Discusses The Origins Of Funding For Free COVID-19 Vaccine Worth IDR 74 Trillion

Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani. (Photo: Instagram @smindrawati)

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani again emphasized that the unconditional free COVID-19 vaccination is a form of state presence in protecting all Indonesians.

"Our priority at the ministry is to provide a budget to meet the needs for vaccine procurement and distribution, as well as extra supervision at each stage," he said in a press release, Wednesday, January 20.

The Minister of Finance added that the 2021 State Budget is an instrument that provides full support for handling the impact of a pandemic on health, including vaccines and vaccinations, social protection, economic recovery, and structural reforms.

"This vaccination strategy already has a legal basis starting from the Presidential Decree 99/2020 concerning the procurement and implementation of vaccinations as well as technical regulations from the Ministry of Health regarding the assignment of PT. Biofarma is for the implementation of vaccine procurement, "he said.

In detail, the Ministry of Finance has provided support for the budget for vaccine supply reaching Rp. 74 trillion, which is included in this year's spending scheme. Of this amount, Rp.18 trillion includes the direct allocation of the 2021 State Budget, the reallocation of the PEN budget for the 2020 period of Rp.36.4 trillion, as well as refocus and reallocation of expenditure for a number of ministries and institutions.

Meanwhile, the additional budget ceiling for the Ministry of Health for the procurement of vaccines is IDR637 billion, which is the remaining 2020 budget that has not been absorbed.

Sri Mulyani also hopes that the role of local governments (pemda) in handling the vaccination program is considered important, especially regarding the use of the APBD budget.

"The support of the local government is the success of the vaccination program through distribution and handling of vaccines in every province and community health centers as well as the operation of vaccines in the field," he said.

In his direction, the Minister of Finance asked the regional governments to allocate a minimum of 4 percent of the DAU allocation for the 2021 fiscal year. If the Regional Government does not receive the DAU allocation, then the funding support will come from DBH according to the financial capacity of each region.

"So the principle is that although the central government in this matter handles matters in the health sector due to this pandemic, we still ask for the participation of the local government. Together we will have much better impacts and results, ”concluded Sri Mulyani.