Sutiyoso submits 2003 budget
Novan Iman Santosa and Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City Governor Sutiyoso officially submitted the 2003 City Budget proposal which amounts to Rp 11.05 trillion with 59.79 percent of it to be spent for capital expenditures, as well as operational and maintenance costs of public facilities.
Sutiyoso said the Rp 11.05 trillion budget would be come from by the city's revenues of Rp 8.89 trillion and the other Rp 2.2 trillion was unspent funds left over from the 2002 budget.
"We will cover the shortage of the city budget this year with the rest of last year's budget," Sutiyoso said in a plenary session of the city council on Tuesday.
Last year's budget amounted to Rp 9.7 trillion with some Rp 5.7 trillion allocated for routine expenditures while the remaining Rp 3.62 billion was allocated for capital expenditures.
The governor said the 2003 budget allocated Rp 2.4 trillion for education and health, Rp 2.9 trillion for city facilities, Rp 793 billion for social and cultural expenses and Rp 450 billion for the economic sector.
He said the budget also allocated Rp 460 billion for legal and public order affairs, Rp 157 billion for population affairs and Rp 632 billion for the natural resources sector.
The budget also allocated Rp 3.94 trillion for administrative affairs expenditures, including the wages of the city administration's employees.
Sutiyoso said the Rp 8.89 trillion revenue will be gathered from taxes amounting to an estimated 4.63 trillion and the central government allocation fund of Rp 4.23 trillion.
Most of the city's revenue was derived from taxes, primarily vehicle taxes, but only a small contribution of Rp 8.12 billion came from the dozens of city-owned companies.
Sutiyoso reiterated on Tuesday his agreement for the city council to review the Rp 9 billion fund which he allocated for himself.
"It's OK, if the fund, including the morning coffee, is cut back a bit," the governor told reporters after the plenary session, in reference to the high cost allocated for coffee which was revealed earlier and has much of the public in an uproar.
Observer La Ode Ida, chairman of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), criticized last Friday the allocation of the fund, including the Rp 90 million (around US$10,000 or Rp 500,000 per workday) for Sutiyoso's morning coffee.
La Ode also was disappointed with the small allocation of Rp 26 billion for disadvantaged people in the 2003 budget, especially compared to the public order agency which will get some Rp 136 billion, mostly to evict disadvantaged people from their houses and workplaces.