Sri Mulyani: Government Saves IDR 30 Trillion Per Year From Burden Sharing With BI

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that the cooperation in state financial financing between the government and Bank Indonesia (BI) as stipulated in the Joint Decree (SKB) I-III had succeeded in saving the state budget by tens of trillions.

According to Sri Mulyani, the synergy with the central bank also helped strengthen efforts to revitalize the state budget during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Estimated savings are between IDR 29 trillion to IDR 30 trillion annually," she told reporters at the Jakarta Finance Ministry on Tuesday, January 31.

Minister of Finance explained, in the scheme implemented by BI, it absorbs state securities (SBN) issued by the government with the aim of helping support the state budget in overcoming the impact of the pandemic.

The SKB I applies in 2020, SKB II in 2021, and SKB III in 2022 which is the end of this burden sharing.

"The SBN has a term of between five and eight years," she said.

It should be noted that in the three years of the SKB, the monetary authority has absorbed IDR 1,104.8 trillion of SBN.

BI itself sets the interest rate for SKB I according to the market mechanism (SBN yield is around 7 percent).

While SBK II in 2021 is not subject to interest. Then, for SKB II it is equivalent to the yield of BI monetary operations or Bank Indonesia's reference interest rate.

"The range really depends on the movement of Bank Indonesia because these are all credible securities," said Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.