"The deficit by the end of August was 1.65 percent of GDP, lower that 2.09 percent last year," Sri Mulyani said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said budget deficit in August reached Rp224.3 trillion or 1.65 percent of the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"The deficit by the end of August was 1.65 percent of GDP, lower that 2.09 percent last year," Sri Mulyani told lawmakers of the Commission XI of the House of Representatives at a working meeting here on Thursday.

Sri Mulyani attributed the deficit to shortfall in tax revenues which reached only Rp780.03 trillion by the end of August or 53 percent of the target set for this year in the state budget.

Domestic the tax revenues made up Rp755.81 trillion of the total tax revenues in the first 8 months of the year or 52.6 percent of the target set in the state budget, she said.

The tax revenues in the first 8 months of this year, however, were larger than Rp711.4 trillion recorded in the same period last year with domestic tax revenues making up Rp689.1 trillion despite extra revenues from tax amnesty program, the minister said.

Sri Mulyani said she was optimistic the tax revenues would increase in the remaining months of the year to follow the rising trend of spending by the government in the third and fourth quarter of year.

"We are quite optimistic as the trend of tax revenues in the last four months of a year normally is picking up. But every month we continue to evaluate the profile of revenues," she said.

She said government spending in the last period of August reached Rp695.6 trillion or 50.9 percent of the budget.

"In the same period last year government spending reached Rp644.71 trillion or 49.3 percent of the budget," she said.

Transfer to the regions and village funds in the period already reached Rp502.6 trillion or 65.6 percent of the target as against Rp490.2 trillion or 63.2 percent of target in the same period last year.

Sri Mulyani said the government would continue to improve the performance of the state budget in order to contribute more to the welfare of the people.

"We will seek to improve the performance and credibility of state budget . Hopefully we could reach the target by phases," she said. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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