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House committee finally approves Rp 3t fund for subdistricts
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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati (JP/Anton Hermansyah)
T
he House of Representatives’ budget committee finally approved on Thursday the fund for subdistricts, which lawmakers from opposition parties consider as a populist policy of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who is seeking reelection next year.
“The fund for villages is Rp 70 trillion (US$4.6 billion) after taking Rp 3 trillion for subdistricts,” said the chairman of the House budget committee working group C after a meeting in the House building in Jakarta as quoted by kontan.co.id.
The subdistrict fund has been a source of public debate as lawmakers from opposition parties rejected the fund, arguing that it was initially not allocated in the 2019 state budget. They criticized the government for proposing it months before the presidential election in April, 2019.
Like a village, a subdistrict is the lowest administrative unit under control of the government, but the subdistrict administrations operate in urban areas.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said although the fund had been approved by the House’s budget committee, the government had not decided the mechanism through which the fund would be distributed.
“We will convey the mechanism later,” she said after attending the meeting with working group C, which also approved a Rp 756.7 trillion regional transfer fund.
The regional transfer fund is allocated as a so-called balance fund for regional administrations, regional incentives and the fund for special autonomic regions. (bbn)
