House rushes to complete budget

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators worked overtime on Friday to complete the crucial deliberation of the government-proposed 2002 state budget by the Saturday deadline.

"If we can't complete this (on time), it could create new uncertainty that would be damaging to the economic recovery process .... The regions are also all waiting for this ...," Chairman of the House state budget committee Benny Pasaribu told fellow legislators during a debate attended by Finance Minister Boediono.

The House has been determined to pass the budget bill into law by Oct. 23, just before legislators begin their month-long recess.

A delay in the approval of the budget would have serious consequences, including difficulties for all provincial and regency administrations in drawing up their respective 2002 budgets in a timely fashion.

Some provincial administration officials and legislators told The Jakarta Post earlier that they could not afford any delay.

Angry regions could trigger a new round of social and political instability in the country.

The legislators debated the various components of state expenditure during Friday's session.

By 9 p.m., only two components had been approved: Personnel expenditure, set at Rp 40.75 trillion (US$4.04 billion), and material (goods and services) expenditure, at Rp 11.61 trillion.

"This means that there will be no increase in the salary of government employees," Boediono said.

Domestic revenue for next year is set at Rp 301.87 trillion.

The 2002 budget deficit is projected at 2.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Legislators said that the most difficult item to be decided would be the fuel subsidy.