City proposes Rp 2.84t budget

City proposes Rp 2.84t budget

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has proposed to the City Council a budget of Rp 2.84 trillion (US$1.3 billion) for Jakarta in the next fiscal year, or 9.26 percent higher than the current budget of Rp 2.7 trillion.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said in a plenary session yesterday the increase was in line with various factors such as the increases in the routine and development budgets.

He said the administration will set aside Rp 1.55 trillion for the routine budget, Rp 0.29 trillion more than last year. "A total of Rp 507.72 billion, or 31.74 percent of the routine budget, will be used for employees' salaries.

For the development budget the administration plans to allocate Rp 1.29 trillion. The 1995/96 development budget was Rp 949.9 billion.

Surjadi said the increases in the budgets were projected from various revenues such as regional revenues, contributions from the central government, tax sharing and the balance carried over from last year.

The governor said the city administration estimates that in the coming fiscal year regional revenues will be 17.18 percent higher than in this year's, rising from Rp 1.42 trillion to Rp 1.83 trillion.

"The increase is caused by the increase in regional taxes, regional fees and profits from city-owned companies," Surjadi said.

Surjadi said regional taxes and fees consist of vehicle tax, vehicle ownership transfer tax, entertainment tax, development tax, advertising tax, and city planning and development supervision fees.

He also said that the revenue from tax sharing is expected to be 22.83 percent higher than this year but the amount has not yet been given by the central government.

"The biggest contribution is from the property tax which is expected to increase from Rp 284.4 billion to Rp 371.45 billion," he said.

Development

Surjadi said four sectors set to receive large sums of money in the development budget are the regional development and relocation sector with Rp 218.77 billion, the government employees sector with Rp 180 billion, the housing sector with Rp 175.49 billion and Rp 132 billion for the transportation sector.

The governor said that the allocation for the development and relocation sector is aimed at enhancing mayoralties' autonomy and improving their employees' skills in planning and supervising developments in their areas.

On the other hand, the budget is also aimed at improving people's welfare through the IDT (Presidential aid for poor villages) program, he said.

Surjadi said that the city administration will intensify the development of low-cost apartments in the city by allotting Rp 60.6 billion for the such projects next year. This year Rp 10.6 billion was used to fund apartment projects.

"In the next fiscal year we will build seven blocks of apartments in three locations: Karet Tengsin, Bulak Wadon and Tambora," he said.

Surjadi said the budget will also be used to acquire land for low cost apartments in Bendungan Hilir, Tanah Tinggi, Tambora, Tebet Barat and Karet Tengsin.(yns)