JAKARTA – Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance, Febrio Kacaribu, stated that Indonesia is quite fortunate with the increase in world commodity prices because it can make capitalization efforts to increase income.
According to him, the increased source of income was mostly used to maintain people's purchasing power.
“The majority of the commodity windfalls are optimized to keep fuel prices from rising, electricity rates to remain constant, and we also don't change subsidized gas prices. These are all very large subsidies,” he said in the Multidimensional Poverty in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic dialogue, Wednesday, July 27.
Febrio added that historically, the government usually budgeted a subsidy budget of around Rp. 100 trillion. However, this year the figure shot up to Rp500 trillion.
“This is a huge addition to the windfall earlier. We have little choice but to maintain people's purchasing power. As a result, the poverty rate tends not to increase or decrease,” he said.
Sri Mulyani's subordinates then tried to compare the situation with a number of developing countries that were not as fortunate as Indonesia.
“Not many countries enjoy this luxury, and that's very clear. They are even facing the threat of malnutrition because they have to struggle to get food and energy supplies. Moreover, many countries also do not have enough foreign exchange to buy some products because the prices are increasing and the supply is also limited,” he stressed.
According to the VOI record, thanks to the increase in world commodity prices such as coal and palm oil, Indonesia's income sector has increased. The Ministry of Finance reports that in the 2022 State Budget Law, the target for state revenue is IDR 1,846.1 trillion.
This figure was then corrected upwards to Rp2,226.6 trillion through Presidential Decree 98/2022. In fact, some time ago, the government again issued an outlook that this year's APBN revenue could reach up to Rp2,436.9 trillion.
However, the state spending sector also ballooned given the increasing burden of subsidies and mandatory laws related to the allocation of the education budget and transfers to the regions.
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