Head Of Bappenas Suharso: President Orders DAK Sharpening In APBN 2023

Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Suharso Monoarfa delivered a press statement/ Antara

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo ordered the ministers of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet to sharpen the portion and allocation of the Special Allocation Fund (DAK) for the preparation of the 2023 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget Draft (RAPBN), said Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Suharso Monoarfa.

"What the President said, after being evaluated that the Special Allocation Fund first requires sharpening thematically and prioritized locus, then the effectiveness of the program itself," said Suharso in a press statement after a limited meeting on the government's work plan and the indicative ceiling for 2023 led by the President in Presidential Palace, Jakarta, reported by Antara, Thursday, April 14.

According to Suharso, based on the experience of the last few years, DAK is almost completely distributed in all regions and each receives a relatively small number.

"In the coming year we will begin to sharpen it, so that DAK is truly effective in assisting regional development," said Suharso.

The Head of Bappenas also said that DAK should be used to link and synchronize national-regional programs that meet in the APBN and APBD.

Suharso said that the President gave an example of road construction in the regions as one of the programs that could be a meeting between the use of DAK.

"Roads in that area are about 428,000 kilometers long, with unstable conditions or 43 percent of the national average, and regional roads cover 90 percent of all roads in the country," said Suharso.

Nevertheless, the President noted that the government at the district/city and provincial levels should have had sufficient funds to be allocated to road construction in the regions before requiring APBN assistance via DAK. (Inpres) for provincial roads and Inpres for district/city roads.

"Which will be prioritized as productive roads that connect the connectivity of production areas and consumer areas," said Suharso.

In the 2022 APBN, DAK reaches IDR 60.87 trillion for Physical DAK and IDR 128.72 trillion for Non-Physical DAK from the value of postal transfers to regions in regional spending and village funds.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in her press statement said that the government assumed that transfers to the regions for the 2023 State Budget would be around Rp800-826 trillion.

This figure increases from the value of transfers to regions and village funds in the 2022 APBN of Rp.769.91 trillion, which has decreased compared to Rp.795.48 in the previous year.