State draft budget

It is disappointing to know how the state draft budget for 1998/1999 has been prepared. I am not an economist, but to my mind, there are many items that are either too optimistic or too unrealistic. The matter became clearer to me after reading an article in The Jakarta Post of Jan. 8, 1998. The answers from economist Sri Mulyani Indrawati are straight forward and no nonsense that people can understand easily.

No wonder that the IMF is also disappointed with the state draft budget since it does not meet the target set by the IMF under the bailout deal. A question flashes in my mind "What could be the reason for the government to prepare such an unrealistic draft budget?" How can we achieve a four percent growth in this economic turmoil -- the rupiah fell to its record low of Rp 11,000 per U.S. dollar, the number of the unemployed keeps increasing, revenue from income tax and VAT is questionable, many medium and small-scale enterprises may go bankrupt etc. Then I suppose the 1998/1999 draft budget has been politically motivated.

H.W. PIENANDORO

Bogor, West Java