Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has instructed regional governments to adopt a system of routinely pruning the budget in line with the central governments policy to slash the state budget by Rp50.6 trillion.

"We have instructed all the regions to recalculate the budget which will be cut," he said here on Friday.

Consequentially, he asked the regional governments to also do the same as the central government -- using the budget as efficiently as possible.

"Routine pruning of expenditure must be undertaken, for instance, by limiting the number of seminars and meetings held away from office. We have also issued a one-year moratorium on the construction of new offices and recruitment of civil servants for regional governments," he said.

He also asked the regional governments not to procure official vehicles, except when required for activities in the field, such as garbage trucks.

On Thursday (April 7), the government decided to slash state spending in the revised 2016 state budget by up to Rp50.6 trillion.

"We believe we can save Rp50.6 trillion," Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said in a joint press conference with Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro following a plenary cabinet meeting.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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