2009 state budget on track: Minister

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 11/12/2009 8:21 AM  |  Business

The latest report from the finance ministry reveals that the government as of the end of October had absorbed 68 percent of the planned expenditure in the 2009 state budget, indicating an improvement compared to last year.

“Overall spending progress as of October was better than for the same period last year which was slightly below 60 percent,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in a hearing with House of Representative’s Commission XI overseeing finance and banking.

Mulyani said provisional financial performance, both for state income and expenditure, was proof that the government had succeeded in accelerating national development.

“One exception is the expenditure on subsidies, where the government had only spent Rp 84.1 trillion [about US$8.85 billion], much lower than last year’s Rp 201.3 trillion,” Mulyani said.

She explained that the lower disbursement on subsidies reflected that overall oil prices this year were lower than in 2008 and therefore the government did not need to subsidize fuel as much as previously.

Mulyani, however, said some government institutions had failed to speed up the pace of budget disbursement. One example was the Home Ministry, which she said had managed to only disburse 38.6 percent of  its budget as of October, or Rp 3.39 trillion out of the Rp 8.78 trillion
allocated.

In the same period, the Health Ministry spent 46.1 percent or Rp 9.52 trillion of the total allocation of Rp 20.64 trillion for this year.

Mulyani said the government expected to disburse at least Rp 955.2 trillion or 95.4 percent of the targeted Rp 1,000.8 trillion budget by the end of 2009.

Mulyani said as of October the government had spent Rp 680.1 trillion and secured revenue of Rp 637.4 trillion, or 73.2 percent of the Rp 871 trillion revenue target.

Tax revenue reached Rp 489.6 trillion as of October, or 75.1 percent of the year-end target of Rp 652 trillion.

Non-tax revenue, meanwhile, showed slower progress, with only Rp 147.2 trillion collected, or 67.5 percent of the target. The government expects to gain Rp 218 trillion in non-tax revenue by the year end.

Mulyani said the government hoped to secure at least 96.3 percent or Rp 838.4 trillion, of the income target of Rp 871 trillion.

“We are optimistic that we can achieve all of the targets by the end of December, because we are expecting better economic growth during the fourth quarter of this year,” Mulyani said.

The ministry is expecting economic growth of 4.7 percent by the end of 2009 while the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has announced that 4.21 percent growth had been achieved in the third quarter, right on target. (bbs)

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