Finance Ministry’s semester I spending touches only 32%

The Finance Ministry said Monday that by the end of the first semester of the year, it had used only 32.3 percent of the state expenditures allotted for the institution for the entire year.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardodjo, on the other hand, said that the ministry received a total of Rp 17.57 trillion to finance its 2011 programs.

“The realization of the spending plan is low because mostly we’ve only given down payments for our goods and services spending, or they’re in the process of bidding,” Agus said during a meeting with the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing banking, development planning and financial affairs.

“And then there’s also the money that we haven’t channeled for the financial service authority...,” he added, referring to a planned new financial authority, whose establishment is still being discussed by the government and lawmakers in a bill expected to be passed into law later this month.

Agus said with such a figure, several divisions at his ministry would likely only be able to spend about 80 percent of the budget already allocated for the 2011 fiscal year.