There Is A House Of Representatives Regarding Financing, Sri Mulyani's Subordinates: The Government Don't Like Debt!

Director General of Financing and Risk Management of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) Suminto revealed that the realization of debt withdrawals and plans to finance state finances is part of the government's agreement with the DPR.

According to Suminto, this was clearly recorded in the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN), which processes planning, discussions, and ratifications were carried out jointly between the executive and the legislature. Therefore, he seeks to ward off negative tendencies that debts are entirely made by the government, especially the Ministry of Finance.

"We always say that when the government owes it not because the government likes debt. If we look at the state budget, how much the government must owe is actually residual from our state budget policy," he said when fulfilling the invitation to a working meeting with Commission XI of the DPR, quoted Wednesday, February 8.

Suminto stated that debt withdrawal is a consequence of the budget deficit that has been agreed to finance state administration in one year of the APBN period.

"The government is doing debt to finance the deficit that has been jointly determined by the government and the DPR, nothing more than that," said Sri Mulyani's subordinate explaining.

Suminto emphasized that the next task of the government is to manage the risk of this obligation in order to provide the maximum benefit to the wider community.

"In the issuance of debt, of course, we as portfolio managers, namely how much is the composition, how much is the tenor, how much is the debt for both rupiah and foreign and so on," he said.

"So the formula for our portfolio to be optimal is to, first at minimum cost. Second, the risk can be controlled. These are two things that we must manage in terms of costs and risks," said Suminto.

VOI noted that the total government debt until the end of December 2022 was IDR 7,733.99 trillion. This value is equivalent to 39.57 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Meanwhile, the provisions of the state financial law state that the maximum allowed debt limit should not exceed 60 percent of GDP.

Meanwhile, referring to the 2023 State Budget Law, it is known that the debt financing needs for this year's period amounted to IDR 696.4 trillion.