House rushes to complete budget

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.