Government Controls Budget Deficit Through Efficiency Measures

Jakarta — The State Secretary Minister (Mensesneg) Prasetyo Hadi stated that the government continues to prepare strategies to maintain the nation’s fiscal health, including closing potential budget deficits through spending controls and reviewing programmes deemed less of a priority.

Following a coordination meeting at the Ministry of Defence in Jakarta on Tuesday, he noted that fiscal management is conducted on an annual basis, meaning deficit calculations must be viewed comprehensively within a single fiscal year.

According to him, spending control efforts have actually been undertaken well before recent global developments, including potential escalation of international conflicts. The government regularly conducts evaluations of budget items across all ministries and agencies.

“On one hand, even without recent events, we have continuously attempted what we call the review of activities or budget items, as we did last year,” said Prasetyo.

One concrete step taken is tightening approval for official travel, particularly to foreign countries. He stated that approval for official travel is now more selective to ensure budget efficiency.

Additionally, the government has also postponed several expenditures deemed non-urgent, such as building construction that does not directly impact ministry or agency performance.

“Spending that can be postponed, we do that continuously. So before these events, it happened that we initially did not anticipate there would be war or escalation. We frequently coordinate and meet to continue carrying out that process,” said Pras.

Prasetyo added that the budget review process is undertaken by identifying unproductive programmes and redirecting focus towards more priority spending.

These steps are implemented through intensive coordination between the State Secretariat Ministry and the Finance Ministry to ensure fiscal policy remains adaptive to global dynamics.

With this strategy, the government hopes to maintain the deficit under control whilst ensuring state budget is used more efficiently and targeted appropriately.