ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Indonesian government through the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) launched a State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) policy package to maintain stability and momentum for economic recovery.
This policy was carried out in response to global economic turmoil, China’s economic slowdown and the long drought caused by El Nino.
“I would like to convey several APBN policy steps to maintain stability and maintain the momentum of economic recovery amidst the current challenges and pressures from the global economy. “There is also the El Nino factor which we see hitting especially our low-income communities,” said Minister of Finance (Menkeu), Sri Mulyani Indrawati at the Press Conference of our APBN, Wednesday (25/10/2023), in Jakarta.
Sri said that the occurrence of El Nino resulted in a spike in commodity prices such as rice which triggered high inflationary pressure. Apart from that, high interest rates in developed countries and the weakening global economic outlook have had a very pronounced impact on the economy and society.
“So the APBN needs to provide protection by thickening social assistance. This is so that, especially in low income communities, we also want to strengthen economic activities, especially at the grass root level with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). “We also want to continue to encourage MSMEs, especially for the distribution of People’s Business Credit (KUR) and we also want to further improve, especially the residential property sector,” he said.
Sri Mulyani explained that the first policy package was to thicken social assistance in the form of additional rice assistance and direct cash assistance (BLT). This policy aims to maintain purchasing power, stabilize prices and control inflation.
Additional rice assistance will be provided to 21.3 million beneficiary groups amounting to 10 kilos of salt during December with a total budget requirement of IDR 2.67 trillion. Meanwhile, BLT will be given to 18.8 million beneficiary groups amounting to IDR 200 thousand per month during November-December with a total budget requirement of IDR 7.52 trillion.
The second policy package is aimed at optimizing the role of MSMEs by accelerating the realization of people’s business credit (KUR).
“We are pushing for this year’s KUR to be increased to reach the target of IDR 297 trillion. “We saw that the implementation of KUR was somewhat hampered in the first semester, so we asked that this program be accelerated so that the target of 297 could be achieved,” he said.
Furthermore, Sri Mulyani explained that the third policy package was strengthening the housing sector to boost activities in the housing construction sector and at the same time help low-income people to be able to get a house.
The form of the policy is the provision of value added tax borne by the government (VAT DTP) for the sale of new houses with prices under IDR 2 billion. For low-income people, the government also provides administration fee assistance (BBA) for 14 months amounting to IDR 4 million per house. Finally, support was also provided to increase the target of integrated prosperous housing assistance (RST) for poor communities of 1.8 thousand houses.
“We are taking these various steps, especially in the construction sector, but also in social support, we hope to be able to make our economy survive the shocks of global uncertainty,” he said. (AT Network)
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