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THE MINISTER of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, said that from a fiscal perspective, the State Budget will continue to perform positively. This can be seen in terms of state revenues and support for state spending to support people’s needs, as well as in supporting investments such as spending on infrastructure.
“Realization of state revenue until the end of February 2022 was 37.73 percent year-on-year (yoy). In this case, state revenue has reached IDR302.42 trillion or equivalent to 16.38% of the 2022 State Budget target,” Sri Mulyani said in a teleconference, Wednesday (4/13).
Sri Mulyani explained that the improvement in state revenues was mainly due to the recovery from the performance of the business world, as well as the increase in commodity prices. And also, an increase in exports and imports of goods needed to support economic activity that is getting higher.
On the realization of state spending, Sri Mulyani admitted that there had been a 0.1 percent slowdown to reach IDR282.7 trillion, or 10.4% of the state spending ceiling. However, the Minister of Finance confirmed that the realization of this expenditure had improved when compared to the January 2022 period, which had experienced a contraction of up to 13%.
The improvement in the realization of state spending was also supported by the realized central government spending of IDR172.2 trillion. This expenditure includes operational expenditures from ministries and institutions (K/L), as well as program expenditures from (K/L) especially for infrastructure spending and social assistance spending.
“The distribution of social assistance in this case has increased with the implementation of the Smart Indonesia Program assistance, the first phase of the Family Hope Program, and also the disbursement of basic food cards,” said Sri Mulyani.
For non-K/L expenditures, the realization was recorded at IDR93.6 trillion, especially for the payment of increased energy subsidies. With these developments, state revenues experienced a very high growth of 37.73%.
“Meanwhile, spending in this case has been relatively well developed since January, so that the State Budget continues to record a surplus of IDR19.7 trillion or 0.11% of gross domestic product,” the Minister of Finance noted.
In anticipating and dealing with ongoing global turmoil and pressures, the APBN will continue to respond actively and position itself as a ‘shock absorber’. The goal is to continue to protect from the health side, because the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet.
“And the State Budget also protects from the people’s side in the form of purchasing power and especially the most vulnerable groups, and at the same time the State Budget is starting to recover its health and continues to support economic recovery,” Sri Mulyani stated.
Sri Mulyani concluded that so in this case, the APBN will carry out multiple objectives, namely protecting health from the side of the pandemic that has not ended, supporting the community in terms of purchasing power and social assistance, especially for the most vulnerable community groups, maintaining national economic recovery, and fourth, namely continue to maintain and restore the health of the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN). [antaranews/photo special]
