Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia's Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati has assured that lecturer salaries and student scholarships will remain a government priority and will not be affected by the current budget efficiency policy.

"All ministries and institutions must cut their budgets, including the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology. They are reorganizing spending due to efficiency measures," she said during a media briefing on Tuesday.

"However, funding for salaries, including performance and professional allowances, as well as scholarships for students and university attendees, remains a top priority," she emphasized.

While the ministry recalculates budget allocations in line with President Prabowo Subianto’s directive, Indrawati confirmed that programs directly impacting the public will continue to receive funding priority.

"Important responsibilities must not be sacrificed," she stressed.

If a budget shortfall occurs, Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Brian Yuliarto will submit a request to the Ministry of Finance for additional funding, she added.

“That is our usual process, and we will continue to manage it well,” Indrawati noted.

President Prabowo has also issued a regulation to address discrepancies in income components for civil servant lecturers under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology.

The regulation ensures that lecturers at public universities and service institutions who have not received full remuneration will be eligible for an additional performance allowance. This will be calculated based on the gap between their professional and performance allowances, based on job class and service level.

For example, if a professor receives a professional allowance of Rp6.74 million (approx. US$400) and the performance allowance for an echelon II official is Rp19.28 million, the professor will receive an additional Rp12.54 million in performance allowance.

If a lecturer’s professional allowance exceeds the performance allowance, the professional allowance will still be granted without deductions.

“If the professional allowance is higher, it remains unchanged. If it’s lower, we top it up,” Indrawati explained.

In total, 31,066 lecturers will receive the performance allowance: 8,725 from public university work units, 16,540 from public university service agencies without prior remuneration, and 5,801 from ministry-related service institutions.

Although the regulation was issued in April, the allowance will be calculated retroactively from January. The estimated budget for the allowance is Rp2.66 trillion, covering 14 months of pay: 12 months of salary (January–December), a holiday allowance, and the 13th salary.

The funding is included in the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology's employee expenditure allocation.

Related news: Budget efficiency opportunity to strengthen financial management: DPR
Related news: Scholarship, education programs uninterrupted despite budget cut: Govt