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Indonesia plans to slash COVID-19 stimulus by 44% next year
The government is planning to allocate Rp 414 trillion for COVID-19 stimulus spending next year, down 44.35 percent from this year’s budget, as the economy remains on the mend.
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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati delivers remarks after the signing of a memorandum of understanding on a program to accelerate and digitize regional government transactions at the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister in Jakarta on Feb. 13, 2020. (Antara/M Risyal Hidayat)
T
he government is mulling over a plan to allocate a much smaller budget for COVID-19 stimulus spending next year, as the economy remains on the mend.
The Finance Ministry expects to set aside Rp 414 trillion (US$2.89 million) for the special stimulus budget next year, which would be 44.35 percent lower than the budget for this year.
The ministry plans to allot funds only for the purposes of health care, social protection and economic recovery, down from the five spending categories this year.
“We have identified several agencies and ministerial activities that will strengthen the national economic recovery,” Isa Rachmatarwata, the budgeting director general at the ministry, said at an online press briefing on Thursday. “But we will keep identifying [needs], and there is still a possibility that [the budget] will increase.”
Initially, the government had allocated Rp 699 trillion for this year’s stimulus budget. But the Delta wave, which peaked in July, prompted the government to raise the budget and change spending priorities amid surging demand for hospitalization.
Read also: Govt raises COVID-19 recovery budget by 7%
In the January-to-October period, the government disbursed around Rp 495.77, or 66.6 percent of the stimulus. The ministry estimates that between 91 and 95 percent of the stimulus budget will have been spent by the end of the year.
