City draft budget yet to be discussed
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The City Council and the city administration have yet to begin discussion of the 2003 draft budget, which is expected to increase by about 13 percent from Rp 9.7 trillion in 2002 to nearly Rp 11 trillion.
The administration delivered the draft to the council last week, but as of Thursday deliberation of the draft had yet to begin despite there being only two weeks before the new year.
The revenue sources for the 2003 budget draft do not differ greatly from last year's budget, with the administration still deriving the majority of its revenue from taxes and levies.
This is largely because city-owned assets, city-owned companies and joint-venture companies are still unable to make significant contributing to the budget. These city-owned assets are collectively expected to account for just Rp 67.3 billion of the entire budget.
"This means the budgets will still be a burden on the public, because city-owned companies, assets and other companies have been poorly managed by the city administration," said Dani Anwar, a member of City Council Commission B for economic affairs.
According to the draft budget, fuel taxes will be significant source of income next year, expected to contribute some Rp 1.53 trillion to the budget. This follows the recent implementation of the gas tax in the city.
Vehicle taxes will continue to account for a large portion of the budget, contributing Rp 1.21 trillion. Another significant revenue source is expected to be shared taxes with the central government to the amount of Rp 3.1 trillion.
Other significant revenue sources include taxes from restaurants, entertainment centers, billboards and underground water use. On the levy side, much of the money is expected to come from health services, street parking, vehicle tests, cemetery services and waste collection services.
On the spending side, half of the budget will be used to finance the activities of such city apparatus as the administration and the public order office.
Syambudi Bachri, a councillor from the National Mandate Party (PAN), criticized the draft city budget for not prioritizing economic growth in the city.
"As you can see, the city administration has budgeted over Rp 5 trillion for the administration and public order, while it only budgeted Rp 457.9 billion for the economic sector. How can our economy recover if it is not given priority?" he asked.
Prioritizing public order, according to Syambudi, will only increase the number and intensity of raids on street vendors and other residents working in the informal sector, which could result in violent opposition.
"I think cracking down on these people now will be counterproductive," Syambudi said.
A number of councillors also criticized the lack of time they have to study the draft budget. They said it was unlikely councillors would have the time to examine each of the 14 volumes of the draft, which each volume weighing in at about 500 pages.
"How can we examine all of these papers in less than a month?" Abdul Aziz Madnur, a councillor on Commission B, asked.