City urged to revise its miscalculated budget

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

With less than one week before the Dec. 31 budget deadline, the city administration has been told to fix an error in the draft budget that could cause a deficit of about Rp 1.2 trillion (US$133.33 million) next year.

In the draft, the administration calculated a 2005 budget of Rp 13.83 trillion, with Rp 1.9 trillion of that amount coming from the unspent portion of the 2004 budget.

However, according to the latest calculations on Dec. 15, only some Rp 1.1 trillion of the 2004 budget remains unspent, not Rp 1.9 trillion.

And the head of the City Council's Commission C for financial affairs, Daniel Abdullah Sani, estimated that by the end of the year, there would only be about Rp 700 billion unspent from the 2004 budget.

"That means if the draft budget is not revised, the revenue side will have a deficit of Rp 1.2 trillion," Daniel told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"Revising this incorrect estimation will only prolong the already sluggish deliberation of the budget," he remarked.

Offering two options, Daniel suggested the administration find different revenue sources to make up the difference or cut its proposed spending.

City spokesman Catur Laswanto said the assumption on the unspent 2004 budget was based on previous years' figures.

"We did not expect our performance to be much better this year," he told the Post, adding that the city would make adjustments to several programs proposed in the draft.

Catur said the city would unlikely be able to increase revenue next year due to security problems and a planned fuel price hike that would lower people's purchasing power.

"Security problems will discourage tourists and investors from coming to Jakarta. That means our economy will not be better next year," he said.

Daniel warned the administration to be selective in making adjustments to next year's spending. He stressed that particular programs should not be eliminated.

"The administration should not cut the spending on several priority programs like the constructions of busway corridors, the East Flood Canal, low-cost apartments and school buildings, as well as the improvement of teachers' welfare, reforestation and a microcredit scheme."