Indonesia Slashes Health Budget to Fund Economic Recovery

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia's economic recovery program from the Covid crisis gets an additional funding of more than $1 billion. 

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that the initial healthcare budget of 87.55 trillion rupiahs ($5.97 billion) will be slashed to fund the national economic recovery program.

The government will reallocate 14.82 trillion rupiahs ($1.01 billion) from healthcare to the national program supporting the process of economic recovery. This leaves 72.73 trillion rupiahs ($4.94 billion) for healthcare, down 16.92 percent from the original budget, Airlangga said.

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“It is hoped that the economic recovery programs will be carried out with maximum effort following the given budget of 14.82 trillion rupiahs ($1.01 billion),” said Airlangga in a virtual press conference on August 26.

However, the senior minister did not specify which budget items in the economic recovery program will receive the additional funding of 14.82 trillion rupiahs ($1.01 billion).

Moreover, Airlangga said that the government is also planning to reallocate funds from social assistance. He did not elaborate.

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“We will monitor the use of funds allocated for social assistance as we will propose some new programs,” he said.

In a separate interview, Finance Ministry budgeting director-general Askolani said of the reallocation: “There is no budget cut. All will be used for the national economic recovery program.”

(Writer: Mutia Fauzia | Editor: Sakina Rakhma Diah Setiawan)

Source: https://money.kompas.com/read/2020/08/26/181139726/realokasi-anggaran-kesehatan-untuk-penanganan-covid-19-jadi-rp-723-triliun.