During a media meeting in Bogor on Saturday, expert staff for state expenditure at the ministry, Made Arya Wijaya, said that this optimism is based on records showing that, in the past five years, state spending has tended to be in the range of Rp900 trillion to Rp970 trillion during the fourth quarter.
"Normally, our needs in the fourth quarter of our spending are almost always above Rp900 trillion, because our spending pattern. Not sure, maybe it's tradition,” he remarked.
Wijaya said that in the fourth quarter, state spending is usually used for paying subsidies and energy compensations as well as fulfilling contracts for various government projects that are due at the end of the year.
"Why are we optimistic? Because the difference is, the allocation we provide for paying subsidies and compensation. So, we are optimistic that (the remaining budget) will be (thoroughly used up) by the end of December," he added.
With the payment for compensations, energy subsidies, and projects that are due, it is only natural that the trend of state spending increases significantly in the fourth quarter of 2022.
“So, our transactions will always increase in the fourth quarter, especially later in November and December," he explained.
The provisional realization of state spending was recorded at Rp2,376 trillion (US$152 billion) as of October 2022, or 76.49 percent of the state budget ceiling target, he informed.
He reiterated that the data is provisional and does not include transactions from regional budgets and interest on debt payments.
"Please note that this is a provisional figure (as of October) because we are still waiting for some data that has not been inputted and is currently in the process of being finalized," he informed.
In the 2022 State Budget, the government set a total state expenditure ceiling of Rp3,106.4 trillion (US$199 billion), which was divided into central government spending of Rp2,301.6 trillion (US$147 billion) and transfers to regions and village funds of Rp804.8 trillion (US$51.5 billion).
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Translator: M Heriyanto, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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