The President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, is reported to be removing a special budget for handling the Covid-19 in the state budget or APBN 2023. However, this does not mean that there will be no handling of Covid-19 next year.
This was conveyed by Jokowi to the ministers in the Plenary Cabinet Session, Monday (8/8/2022) at the State Palace, Jakarta. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who was present at the session, explained that Jokowi gave various directions related to the draft state budget (RAPBN) 2023.
According to him, President Jokowi will change the spending posture in next year’s budget. One of the main changes was the abolition of the special budget for handling the Covid-19 pandemic, which existed for the last three years.
“The health budget no longer provides special allocations for the pandemic, but the regular health budget will increase from Rp. 133 trillion this year to Rp. 168.4 trillion,” Sri Mulyani said at a press conference regarding the Plenary Cabinet Session, Monday (8/8/2022). ).
However, he said the abolition did not mean the government was no longer handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
The treatment will be included in the overall health budget framework, in line with strengthening the overall health system.
“This is to strengthen the health system in Indonesia,” he said. Since 2020, the budget for handling the Covid-19 pandemic has been included in the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program.
The budget is prepared for several purposes, such as spending on vaccines and drugs, implementing vaccinations, incentives for health workers, and others.
Sri Mulyani did not explain in more detail about the abolition of it for handling the Covid-19 pandemic. However, according to him, this will be conveyed by Jokowi in his Financial Note speech on August 16, 2022, at the House of Representatives (DPR).
Meanwhile, an estimate from the East Java Provincial Government that said Covid-19 would be sloping made East Java DPRD member Khulaim Junaidi happy.
This estimate is based on the low use of the Unexpected Expenditure (BTT) budget in hospitals belonging to the East Java Provincial Government in the 2022 APBD.
“The reports we received are very proud, precisely here the unexpected spending that was prepared for Covid 19 was no more than 10 percent absorbed,” said the East Java PAN politician.
The low number of residents being treated due to Covid 19 shows that communal immunity or herd immunity in East Java has already been established.
This means that the East Java Provincial Government can divert the BTT Covid 19 budget in both the 2022 PAK and the 2023 Regional Budget for the revival of the MSME sector which is still slumped in East Java.
“With the hospital report explaining that the budget prepared for it is not needed, this proves that it has really gone down. We hope that we will reduce this PAK later and not add it again, it can be used for other needs to revive the MSME sector,” added the member of the East Java DPRD from the Sidoarjo Dapil, Tuesday (9/8).
