TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati met the General Chairperson of PDIP, Megawati Soekarnoputri amidst the issue of resignation from the cabinet and pressure on the budget for the provision of social assistance in 2024. Secretary General (Sekjen) of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Hasto Kristiyanto confirmed the news of SMI’s meeting with Megawati.
According to Hasto, the meeting was held routinely considering Megawati’s capacity as Chair of the Steering Committee of the National Innovation Research Agency (BRIN) and Sri Mulyani who served as Ex-officio Chair of the Steering Committee. Apart from that, said Hasto, the meeting also discussed the condition of the nation and state.
“Of course, we also talk about the situation of the nation and state, talk about fiscal matters. “That is an important thing,” he said after the People’s Celebration event, the Metal Greeting Concert at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Main Stadium, Jakarta, Saturday, January 3 2024.
Hasto refused to explain in detail the contents of the conversation between Megawati and Sri Mulyani. However, he ensured that both of them uphold the interests of the Indonesian people.
“Yes, currently there are efforts to use social assistance (social assistance) for electoral purposes, to the point that the budget in each ministry is cut by 5 percent for electoral purposes. “We have to look at the larger national interest,” he said.
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Regarding social assistance, according to him, this is the government’s commitment to helping poor people. However, he noted that if social assistance was politicized for presidential candidate pair number 2 Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka, then this would be a serious violation.
“When social assistance was politicized for the interests of candidate pair 02, some even entered the party offices of candidate pair 02, this shows a serious violation. “Because social assistance, the people’s budget, from taxes, must be returned to the people appropriately,” said Hasto.
Sri Mulyani reportedly rejected the allocation of the Food Risk Mitigation BLT or Food BLT budget because it would burden state finances. In a Tempo Magazine report in the January 21 2024 edition, a Tempo source revealed that Sri Mulyani felt pressured by Jokowi to allocate the state budget for social assistance. Sri Mulyani’s colleague said that discussions regarding the distribution of social assistance were accelerated after the Constitutional Court read out the decision which paved the way for Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son, to run as vice presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election. He was finally paired with Prabowo Subianto.
The same source said that that month, Jokowi asked Sri Mulyani to prepare El Nino social assistance of IDR 500 thousand per month for each KPM. However, Sri Mulyani rejected this because it would burden state finances. Finally, it was agreed that the amount of assistance was IDR 200 thousand per month.
Most recently, Sri Mulyani then did it automatic adjustment aka blocking of Ministry/Agency budgets in 2024. Overall, Sri Mulyani’s frozen budget reached IDR 50.14 trillion.
Head of the Communications and Information Services Bureau of the Ministry of Finance (KLI Kemenkeu) Deni Surjantoro explained that automatic adjustment which was carried out by the Ministry of Finance following President Jokowi’s direction when submitting the 2024 Budget Implementation List (DIPA).
Application automatic adjustment make each Ministry/Agency set aside 5 percent of their total budget to be reserved and not spent in advance. So K/L have to block part of the budget that has not been prioritized and implemented at the beginning of the year.
On the other hand, the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, admitted that the amount of Rp. 50.14 trillion of the blocked ministry/institution (K/L) budget was to fund the social assistance program. Blocking is one source of funding for BLT Food and fertilizer subsidies.
Airlangga explained that there are various methods that can be used to regulate funding sources so that the allocation of BLT Food funds and fertilizer subsidies can be increased. One of them is with automatic adjustment or automatic adjustments to the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).
“Well, later on (BLT Food Risk Mitigation and fertilizer subsidies) there are various techniques. The Minister of Finance will complete it, one of which is automatic adjustment,” said Airlangga at his office in the Lapangan Banteng area, Central Jakarta on Monday, February 5 2024.
For more details, read the Tempo Magazine report: Jokowi’s social assistance for the 2024 election
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