House passes law on revision of current budget
House passes law on revision of current budget
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives passed a bill into law yesterday on the upward revision of the 1994/1995 state budget, with two of its four factions calling on the government to be more explicit in its project financing.
The two factions, the Moslem-controlled United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), are unhappy with the current procedures, which they believe do not acknowledge the House's budgetary right as granted by the Constitution of 1945.
Ni Gusti Ayu Eka Sukmadewi, a spokesman for the PDI faction, said during a House session that the government has not adequately explained expenditures for its programs and activities.
"Whether the additional expenditures are made for programs of top priority or not, the House is never informed. This is evidence that the government does not respect the House's budgetary right," Gusti Ayu said.
A. Nana Djuhana Sutarya of the PPP faction said the current procedures, which do not involve the House's ten commissions when deliberating a bill, are too simplistic and designed as formalities only.
He called on the other House factions and the government to jointly change the current procedures. "If the problems arise from the House's own rules, let's change them -- they haven't been changed for 13 years."
The other two factions -- the Armed Forces (ABRI) and the ruling Golongan Karya (Golkar) -- did not specifically mention the procedures in their presentations yesterday.
Approval
All of the four House factions, however, unanimously approved the changes made by the government to the 1994-95 budget, which will end this month.
The changes cover the government's routine and development expenditures as well as its total revenues projected for 1994-95 budget.
The total state revenues are projected to surpass the original target by 3.7 percent to reach Rp 72.35 trillion.
Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad said the unexpectedly higher receipts from oil and gas exports as well as various domestic taxes, levies and foreign aid have amounted to higher state revenues.
Indonesia's crude oil exports for this fiscal year recorded an average price of $16.53 per barrel, well above the budget estimate of $16.
The volume of crude oil exports is also expected to surpass the target of 1.53 million barrels to reach 1.6 million barrels.
Revenues from taxes and levies are projected to exceed the original estimate of Rp 61.36 trillion by 2.7 percent, while those from foreign aid are likely to surpass the budget target by 9.7 percent to Rp 10.98 trillion.
On the expenditure side, the government's routine spending is expected to surpass the target by two percent to reach Rp 43.17 trillion (US$19.6 billion).
Minister Mar'ie explained that the higher-than-projected routine expenditures were mainly a result of higher personnel spending.
The government's development spending, which primarily covers foreign debt servicing and installments, is also projected to exceed the target by 2.5 percent to Rp 18.42 trillion.
Due to the changes, the 1994-95 budget, which previously balanced at Rp 69.74 trillion, expects to savor a surplus of Rp 10.4 billion. (rid)