THE GOVERNMENT is encouraged to be able to make more efficient and effective spending in order to maintain the posture of the State Budget (APBN) this year. State spending that is considered unproductive and does not provide a multiple impact on the economy is suggested to be diverted.
“This can be done by, among other things, increasing spending efficiency through evaluating the budgets of programs that are less productive or do not have a big impact on economic growth,” said Research Manager at the National Secretariat of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) Badiul Hadi to Media Indonesia, Tuesday (24/9).
He is concerned that well-managed spending could widen the budget deficit, even greater than the 2.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that has been set. That figure is also a revision of the initial figure of 2.29% of GDP agreed by the government and the DPR in the middle of this year.
Therefore, spending control needs to be carried out by the government. Badiul encourages policy makers to increase capital expenditures that provide high multiplier effects on the economy. The spending is mainly directed to sectors that can create sustainable growth.
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“Such as infrastructure, education, and health including the agricultural and manufacturing sectors,” he said.
In parallel, the government is also expected to improve the performance of social spending such as subsidies, direct cash assistance and other social protection programs that are still not on target. This is because spending that should be utilized by the poor is often enjoyed by the wealthy.
In that context, improving beneficiary data and a transparent distribution system is needed. Digitizing government spending to monitor social spending performance is also considered to be able to reduce cost inefficiencies.
In addition to improving spending performance, the government is also encouraged to optimize revenue performance. “Optimizing PNBP, for example, from the mining, forestry, and fisheries sectors. Implementing stricter regulations related to oil and gas revenues to support increased revenues in the energy sector. Strengthening investment into Indonesia to boost revenue and job creation is also needed,” Badiul said.
“To maintain fiscal stability, two things can be taken by the government, namely financing efficiency, optimization of debt issuance with controlled debt costs. And collaboration with the private sector, for example, public-private partnership in infrastructure development,” he concluded. (Mir/M-4)
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