City will boost revenue, cut spending to cover deficit
City will boost revenue, cut spending to cover deficit
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
In an effort to cover its Rp 1.2 trillion (US$129 million)
deficit in next year's Rp 13.83 trillion budget, the city
administration aims to cut costs and boost its revenue.
Chairman of City Council Commission A for administration and
government affairs Achmad Suaidy said the council would recommend
reductions in the funding of the city's Persija soccer team, the
establishment of the Jakarta Ombudsmen Commission and the
operational costs of five municipalities.
"There are many programs that can be delayed if the
administration fails to boost its revenue," he said on Monday.
Governor Sutiyoso, patron of Persija -- which finished second
in the recently concluded Indonesian Soccer League -- had
previously allocated Rp 21 billion for the soccer team.
The administration allocated Rp 53 billion to cover the five
municipalities' operational costs.
Chairman of Commission C for city revenue Daniel Abdullah Sani
said his commission had proposed funding reductions, particularly
for programs that were not directly in public interests, such as
workshops, seminars and training for administration officials.
Assistant to the city secretary for city revenue Ma'mun Amin
insisted that allocations for high-priority programs should not
be reduced, including for flood prevention, the busway corridors
and waste treatment plants.
In the 2005 budget draft, the administration has allocated
some Rp 1.9 trillion revenue from this year's unspent budget. But
the latest calculation reveals that the unspent budget is only Rp
700 billion.
During Monday's deliberation, the administration said that it
had a surplus of some Rp 450 billion, which could be used to help
cover the deficit.
Besides reducing spending, the administration also hopes to
boost its revenue.
"Officials from the administration promised to boost city
revenue before reducing spending. But we have no idea how they
would do that as our discussion did not cover revenue resources,"
Daniel said.
Therefore, he added, the council had prepared several cost-
cutting schemes that would be implemented should the
administration fail to boost its revenue.
A city administration official, who requested anonymity, said
the administration would obtain some Rp 300 billion in additional
revenue from automotive taxes as the market would be improved
next year. However, he did not elaborate.
The official estimated that the city could collect additional
revenue from income taxes as many businesspeople in the capital
had not yet paid their taxes this year.
According to the official, most employees are good taxpayers
because their income taxes are automatically taken out of their
salaries. On the contrary, many employers have failed to pay
income taxes.
"If we can force them (the employers) to pay income taxes, we
can collect over Rp 1 trillion from them," the official added.