JakartaPost-March 10, 2025
The Finance Ministry’s unusual failure to disseminate state budget data has experts projecting that the country might see declining revenue in the first few months of this year, partly due to the faulty implementation of the Coretax system and a weakening economy at large, among other factors. Disseminating the state of the government budget has for years been a regular monthly occurrence, whereby press, investors or the general public could scrutinize both revenue and spending results of the prior month as part of maintaining accountability in the use of state finances. The ministry makes these materials publicly accessible through online livestreaming and a downloadable publication called “APBN KiTa”, a practice that has been ongoing since December 2017. However, the Finance Ministry failed to maintain the regular monthly briefing in February, which was supposed to provide clarity on the budget realization for January. Experts have raised concern as skipping the monthly briefing is unprecedented. The Finance Ministry’s spokesperson Deni Surjantoro said on Friday that “it was just a scheduling issue; the agenda is packed”, without divulging details. He said “God willing” the long-awaited press conference would be held sometime later this month. Bhima Yudhistira, executive director at the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the delay of the state budget data disclosure was concerning. “[The delay] further shows that the government is less transparent about the state budget’s condition. This will undermine investors’ trust,” he said.
Moreover, delays in the budget’s dissemination occurred after the government made large policy moves, Bhima said, pointing to widespread budget cuts to save up Rp 306.7 trillion (US$18.9 billion) to fund the flagship free nutritious meal program and the establishment of Danantara, the country’s newest sovereign wealth fund. Read more at:
