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Defense budget the biggest, mostly for personnel spending

Compared to six years ago, the 2020 allocation is an increase of around 47 percent.

Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post)

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Jakarta

Sat, August 24, 2019 Published on Aug. 22, 2019 Published on 2019-08-22T17:26:59+07:00

Defense budget the biggest, mostly for personnel spending

A member of the military cycles past a Hercules aircraft at Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Base in Jakarta in this 2018 photo. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)

The government has again increased the budget for the Defense Ministry, making it the ministry with the biggest budget allocation in the 2020 state budget.

The increase, a 16 percent hike compared to this year’s allocation, is aimed at helping the ministry meet the minimum essential force (MEF) target by 2024.

The MEF is a 15-year scheme or medium-term plan, which is designed to support the Indonesian Military (TNI) to immediately replace its obsolete weaponry. Beginning in 2010, the program is divided into three five-year terms of strategic planning (Renstra).

Since 2015, the first year of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s first term, the Defense Ministry has received a significant increase in budgetary allocation each year with the exception of 2018, when it saw a decrease.

Originally, the Defense Ministry proposed an allocation of Rp 143.5 trillion (US$10 billion) for 2020, but the government has decided to give it Rp 127 trillion, up 16 percent from Rp 109 trillion this year.