he Public Works and Public Housing Ministry has absorbed 45 percent of its budget allocation on a year-to-date basis, higher than in the same period last year, which stood at 31.28 percent.
The higher absorption was due to quicker tenders of infrastructure projects. The tenders for 2016 contracts had started in the second half of 2015, said Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono.
"However, compared to the prognosis [initial plan], we should have achieved 52.89 percent absorption by early September. Thus, there is a 7.87 percent deviation," he said during a meeting with the House of Representatives' Commission V in Jakarta on Tuesday.
By the end of the year, the ministry is expecting 93.66 percent budget absorption of the Rp 97.07 trillion cash allocated for its 2016 budget. This has taken into account the Rp 6.98 trillion (US$531.61 million) budget cuts.
"Related to the budget cuts, we are considering halting some projects, both multi-year and single year," Basuki said, explaining that the ministry's Bina Marga directorate general, which oversaw road construction, had suffered the biggest cut, with Rp 2.96 trillion, or 42.41 percent of the total cut.
The second biggest cut had hit the water resources directorate general, with Rp 2 trillion (28.65 percent of the total cut), followed by Cipta Karya directorate general, which oversaw housing development, with Rp 1.5 trillion (21.49 percent of the total cut). (ags)
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