2005 budget draft to be unveiled next month<\/p>\n
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Minister of Finance Boediono said on Monday that the current
\nadministration would submit to the House of Representatives the
\ndraft of the 2005 state budget on May 5 for deliberation.<\/p>\n
Boediono said that legislators were expected to start debating
\nthe proposed budget once the current recess period ended early
\nnext month.<\/p>\n
\"We'll submit the basic (economic) assumptions for the 2005
\nbudget to the House on May 5,\" he told reporters, but declined to
\nprovide details.<\/p>\n
Other ministry officials, however, have previously said that
\nthe state budget deficit next year was projected to further
\ndecline to 1 percent of gross domestic product (compared to the
\n2004 estimated deficit of 1.2 percent of GDP), while public debt
\nlevel is expected to fall to around 60 percent of GDP.<\/p>\n
The government has argued that the early deliberation of the
\n2005 budget is crucial because the upcoming new government (to be
\nformed in November) would not have sufficient time to make the
\nbudget that would be effective starting January next year.<\/p>\n
More over, the provincial governments need the state budget to
\nbe completed two months before it becomes effective to allow them
\nto make adjustment in their budget.<\/p>\n
The country's recently elected legislators will start to work
\nin October, while the new president will be sworn in November,
\nfollowed by the forming of a new cabinet.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Boediono said that the state budget was projected
\nto reach an equilibrium (a zero percent deficit) in 2006.<\/p>\n
\"In may opinion an equilibrium can be reached in 2006. But it
\nwill all depend on the new government,\" Boediono said.<\/p>\n
Separately, a senior official said on Monday that the
\ngovernment managed to generate during the first three months of
\nthis year 23 percent of its targeted revenue for the 2004 state
\nbudget.<\/p>\n
The current standing would therefore keep the budget on track
\nas the government has set for the whole year a target of Rp 349.9
\ntrillion (US$41 million) in revenue, mostly from taxes.<\/p>\n
\"Revenue from value added taxes, land and building taxes, and
\nincome tax from the oil and gas sector was slightly higher than
\nexpected, but revenue from income tax from the non-oil and gas
\nsector was slightly below expectations,\" head of the Ministry of
\nFinance's fiscal analysis body, Anggito Abimanyu, told reporters.<\/p>\n
Anggito, however, declined to reveal the current standing of
\nthe budget deficit or how much the government had spent during
\nthis year's first quarter.<\/p>\n
\"Expenditure is still small as many funding disbursements for
\nsubsidies and development projects have not started yet,\" he said
\nbriefly.<\/p>\n
The government is expecting to spend Rp 374.4 trillion for the
\n2004 budget year.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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