Prasetio Edi Marsudi (tribunnews.com)

Together with members of the City Administration Budgetary Team (TAPD), the Jakarta City Council has planned to approve the 2016 city budget in November so that the budget can be implemented as of early next year.

City Council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi said the council had learned from this year when the council and the Jakarta city administration failed to agree on the 2015 city budget bill, forcing the city to use the 2014 budget scheme as ruled by the existing law.

'€œWe set Nov. 30 as the deadline,'€ said Prasetio, as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday, adding that the City Council and members of the administration'€™s budgetary team would intensify meetings to speed up the drafting of the bill.

According to Prasetio, after the council and the budgetary team finished drafting the bill, deliberations would be taken over by the council'€™s Budgetary Body (Banggar) before the bill was agreed on by both sides and could become the official city budget bill.

'€œThe final process will be hearings at the City Council building between city councilors and representatives of the city administration,'€ he added.

The 2015 city budget was approved by the Home Ministry in April, four months behind schedule as a result of lengthy deliberations at the City Council that ended in a disagreement between the council and the administration.

The delay of the approval contributed to the poor performance in implementing projects funded by the city budget.

The Home Ministry has said that Jakarta performed poorly in terms of budget spending compared to the rest of the country. Jakarta had spent less than 20 percent of its total budget as of October, far behind the national average of 46.59 percent. (bbn)

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