Pandemic Handling Won't Cause Future State Budget Issue: Gov't

TheIndonesia.co - The Indonesian government aims to avoid future issues with budget state triggered by the pandemic handling by working on fiscal stabilization.

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said all concerning ministries and state agencies will make a ‘measurable’ and ‘gradual’ step for a better-planned state budget.

“Balancing state budget will be done measurably and gradually, and it aims to recover the people, the economy, and the state budget,” Mulyani said on a virtual event on Friday, December 17.

She said the recently-passed Law No. 7/2021 on the Harmonization of Tax Regulations will provide the necessary means for authorities and public to reach the fiscal goals.

According to her, the Law is particularly necessary as it supports the lower-income citizens and small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs).

She said the balancing effort aimed at state budget will start in 2022, after the country spent a bigger percentage of its income for pandemic handling efforts in 2020 and 2021. According to audit by Indonesia’s Audit Board, or BPK, deficit in 2020’s state budget was 6.14 percent, and target for 2021’s budget is currently at 5.7 percent.

The Minister said her office will lower next year’s deficit to 4.85 percent as continuous high deficit will only make economic crisis inevitable.

“We’ve seen many countries experiencing [crisis], and we wouldn’t want Indonesia to suffer from the same condition,” Mulyani said.