Proposal to cut budget submitted

JAKARTA (JP): The municipality has proposed to cut its Rp 3.37 trillion budget for the 1997/1998 fiscal year by 3.31 percent, or Rp 106.6 billion (US$29.21 million), to the City Council in a plenary meeting yesterday.

Governor Sutiyoso said in his report that the cut was made due to overprojected costs of some city projects in last year's budget.

He said the city had earlier estimated that some projects in the previous fiscal year could not be completed as scheduled and would continue into this fiscal year.

"In reality, however, all the projects were completed on time and there's no need to set aside more funds for them," he said.

Another stated reason for the budget cut was the current monetary crisis that forced the city to review 75 development projects.

Sutiyoso declined to name the projects that were delayed. (07)