The Ministry Of Finance Diverts IDR 27 Trillion To Handle COVID-19 And Makes Wisma Athletes Isolation Place

Kemayoran Athlete Village. (Photo: Ministry of PUPR)

JAKARTA - The government is currently prioritizing the use of the budget in the health sector. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said there was a fund of IDR 27 trillion for the handling of the corona virus or COVID-19, which is increasingly spreading.

The funds, he said, came from the budget reallocation of Ministries and Institutions of around Rp. 5 trillion-Rp. 10 trillion. Then, regional transfer funds of around Rp. 17.7 trillion were contributed from revenue sharing, including excise on tobacco products, revenue sharing funds from natural resources (SDA), and non-oil and gas revenue sharing, as well as special autonomy funds, including regional incentive funds.

"Handling COVID-19 will be a major priority and activity budgets that can be relocated are activities that are considered not a priority and the budget has been allocated but is still blocked," he said at the Press Conference of our State Budget via streaming video, Wednesday, March 18.

Regarding regional transfer funds, said Sri Mulyani, the budgets that can be used include, among others, profit-sharing funds or DBH for tobacco excise, DBH for oil and gas and oil and gas natural resources, special autonomy funds, regional incentive funds, and special physical allocation funds for the health sector.

"The regional government cannot say that they have no steps. They have to prepare steps to deal with COVID-19," he said.

On the other hand, Sri Mulyani also appreciated the community's initiative to raise funds to help meet the need for medical devices, especially personal protective equipment for medical personnel at various referral hospitals. However, he emphasized that the state budget will be the main source of handling COVID-19 in the country.

"We really appreciate the people who want to help raise funds for COVID-19. However, the APBN, APBD and BUMN funds will be the main ones in funding COVID-19," he said.

Sri Mulyani said the Ministry of Finance would cooperate with the National Disaster Management Agency to coordinate budget allocations for handling COVID-19.

However, he said, the government will also process the President's decision to strengthen the foundation for Ministries / Agencies and local governments to reallocate budgets for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Transfer of the Function of the Athlete's House for Isolation

As is known, the government has formed a COVID-19 Task Force. Sri Mulyani Indrawati is one of the members. He revealed that the task force would follow up, one of which was to use Wisma Atlet as one of the isolation centers.

Sri Mulyani said, Wisma Atlet has facilities and infrastructure that are considered ready to be used as facilities for efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Starting from electricity, water to beds are available there.

"BNPB will coordinate the use of Wisma Atlet as an installation center to isolate patients who are positive for Covid-19," he said.

Athletes House. (Photo: Ministry of PUPR)

According to Sri Mulyani, the patients who were placed at the Athlete's House were those who did not show symptoms of illness. This is also supported by the support of medical personnel and health workers.

BPNB and the Ministry of Health, continued Sri Mulyani, will prepare procurement for the Rapid Test materials. "The Rapid Test will be distributed to regional hospitals that are heavily affected by COVID-19," he said.

For your information, based on data from the official website corona.jakarta.go.id quoted on Wednesday, March 18 2020, there were 160 positive cases of COVID-19 in Jakarta, and 15 people died. While the overall total reached 227 positive cases.