Legislator Criticises Tourism Minister's Request for Additional Rp 1.99 Trillion Budget: 'Argument is Flawed'

A member of Commission VII of the House of Representatives (DPR) from the PDIP faction, Putra Nababan, has criticised Tourism Minister Widiyanti Putri Wardhana for requesting an additional budget of Rp 1.99 trillion on top of the indicative ceiling of Rp 1.01 trillion for 2027. Putra Nababan stated that the Minister’s argument for the additional funds was not appropriate.

“I’ll get straight to the point, how much money is being requested? The request is for Rp 1.99 trillion, which means a 200% increase from the indicative ceiling of Rp 1.01 trillion. Now, I am leaning towards the view that the Ministry’s argument for requesting additional money is somewhat off the mark,” Putra said during a working meeting with the Minister at the DPR building in Senayan, Jakarta, on Wednesday (17/6/2026).

Putra noted that the trend of budget cuts at the Ministry of Tourism has been ongoing since 2025. He stated that this decline has continued into 2027. “I suspect, as the kids in South Jakarta would say, this is a ‘hard code’, Madam Minister, a hard code from the fiscal authorities. Either the money simply isn’t there, or there are national priorities other than tourism, such as food security, energy, or nutritious meals, and so on,” Putra said.

Furthermore, Putra highlighted the Minister’s argument which compared the requested budget increase to foreign exchange earnings. He pointed out that data shows a smaller budget has actually resulted in larger foreign exchange earnings. “In 2016, which you mentioned, the budget was the highest, a honeymoon period, reaching Rp 5.41 trillion, but the foreign exchange earnings were only Rp 150 trillion. Then, in 2024, which you called the ideal budget, the budget shrank by half to Rp 3 trillion, yet foreign exchange earnings jumped twofold to Rp 269 trillion,” he explained.

“So, given a large budget, the earnings were Rp 150 trillion; when the budget was cut in half, the earnings rose. This is interesting. I have to take a stand on this at Lapangan Banteng, the Finance Ministry. It’s interesting that with a small budget, there was a leap,” he continued.

Putra argued that the fiscal authorities are aware that the tourism sector operates organically through market mechanisms, without needing to be excessively spoon-fed state funds. “That’s what I call autopilot,” he said. He therefore suggested that the Minister should not have presented the budget comparison. “This is what I meant earlier; I thought this slide shouldn’t have been included, especially the comparison, as it weakens the argument,” he added.