House agrees on budget amendments

House agrees on budget amendments

JAKARTA (JP): The Budgetary Commission of the House of
Representatives endorsed yesterday a bill to amend the
government's budget for the current fiscal year.

The bill will soon be submitted to the House, which is
expected to pass it into law.

At yesterday's hearing, Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad
said the current budget is projected to record a surplus of Rp
375.3 billion (US$161 million).

Revenues are expected to rise to Rp 82.72 trillion, from the
original target of Rp 78.02 trillion, while spending is projected
to increase to Rp 82.35 trillion.

Mar'ie said the higher revenues are a result of unexpectedly
higher receipts from taxes, non-tax levies and the oil and gas
sectors.

All four factions on the commission -- the Armed Forces, the
ruling Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and the
Moslem-dominated United Development Party -- hailed the
government's efforts to raise tax receipts to compensate for
growing expenditures.

The PDI faction, however, complained about the government's
presentation of the bill. PDI spokesman Ni Gusti Ayu Eka
Sukmadewi said the government's way of classifying the sectors
and sub-sectors of projects made it difficult for the House to
examine the amendments in detail.

"The three days we spent deliberating the amendments of the
current budget were only to meet the House's formal procedures
and did not touch on the substance of the amendments," Sukmadewi
said. (rid)