City budget for 1998/1999 revised
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has upwardly revised its budget for the 1998/1999 fiscal year by 23 percent to Rp 1.6 trillion (US$145.45 million) as the result of a significant rise in revenue raised through hotel and entertainment taxes and land status upgrading fees, a city official announced on Wednesday.
City Secretary Fauzi Bowo told the media that the changes had been made to the city budget because forecasts of revenue raised from the two sources were "previously calculated under a very pessimistic set of conditions". It is the third time the city administration's budget has been altered this fiscal year, although the first two revisions were cuts.
However, Fauzi, who also heads the city tourism agency responsible for supervising hotels and entertainment spots in the capital, declined to disclose the increase in revenue raised through the two sources.
"The details of the revised budget will be announced on Monday," he said.
The budget for this fiscal year was initially set at Rp 3.2 trillion but was then cut, first to Rp 2.7 trillion and then to Rp 1.3 trillion as the economic crisis worsened.
The budget has been prepared assuming a static economy and a 25 percent rate of inflation.
The cut in their budget has forced the city administration to focus on routine expenditures and to exercise great care in the use of what little funds it has at its disposal.
Data from the Jakarta office of the National Land Agency shows that revenue raised from administration fees associated with the process of upgrading land status amounted to Rp 21.9 billion in the first four months of this fiscal year, which began on Apr. 1, 1998.
The running total is already 62.5 percent of the Rp 35 billion target included in the city administration's previous budget.
"It is possible that by the end of the current fiscal year, income from land status upgrading will have exceeded the initial forecast," Amarullah Asbah, the head of City Council Commission C for financial affairs, commented.
Fauzi said the extra money in the revised budget would be used to finance public services, including the repair of elementary school buildings, providing flood victims with logistical support and undertaking repair work on the city administration's buildings aging buildings.
But the head of the Golkar faction in the council, Fatommy Asaari, called on the administration to give priority to supporting a people's economy by providing capital support.
"They should not allocate the funds to restoration projects.
"The extra revenue should be used to provide needy residents with capital, then the funds could be rolled on (when they are repaid)," Fatommy said. (ind)