House agrees on 2000 budget figures

JAKARTA: All nine factions of the House of Representatives unanimously approved on Tuesday the government-proposed final figures for the 2000 state budget.

In its draft, the government revealed a deficit of Rp 16.13 trillion (about US$1.8 billion) during the 1999/2000 fiscal year, which was much lower than the predicted Rp 29.7 trillion.

The chairman of the House's budget committee, Abdullah Zaini, said the lower-than-expected deficit was attributed to higher revenue and lower expenditures than what had been forecast in the 2000 state budget.

State expenditures during the year reached Rp 221.4 trillion, comprised of routine expenditures of Rp 158 trillion and development spending of Rp 42.879 trillion.

A total of 343 legislators signed the attendance list for the plenary session on Tuesday, but less than one-third of this number actually attended the session. -- JP