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)