PUPR Ministry to Accelerate Infrastructure Spending
Labor-intensive program for irrigation. (Photo by: Ministry of PUPR).
Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono has announced that the Ministry would continue to accelerate infrastructure spending especially on those that provided direct impact on reducing unemployment and maintaining people’s purchasing power through the Cash for Work (PKT) Program which aims to help the nation’s economic recovery and maintain economic growth.
“In 2020, the Ministry will strive to boost all work programs in the third quarter, (even some programs) in the fourth quarter can be carried out in advance, both labor-intensive and regular programs. It is expected that infrastructure development will contribute to the recovery of economic conditions,” the Minister said in the TVRI Dialogue entitled Rise towards Advanced Indonesia, Monday (17/8).
Minister Basuki said that in the 2020 fiscal year, the State Budget is now highly expected to leverage the national economic recovery due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. For this reason, as the Ministry in charge of spending state money, the PUPR Ministry must be able to contribute to the recovery of the national economy by accelerating physical and financial realization.
The Ministry has reallocated the 2020 fiscal year program and budget and refocused activities to support the acceleration of the COVID-19 handling. After reallocation, the initial amount of Rp120.2 trillion of the 2020 DIPA (Budget Implementation List) has decreased to Rp83.97 trillion. Of the total allocation, Rp11.52 trillion was earmarked for cash for work programs.
Until mid-August 2020 (as of August 17), the absorption of infrastructure spending by the Ministry has reached Rp36.47 trillion from the total 2020 fiscal year ceiling of Rp83.97 trillion (44%). Meanwhile, specifically for the routine cash for work program, the Ministry has disbursed Rp6.84 trillion or 60.14%.
In addition to allocating routine cash for work program budget for 2020 amounting to Rp11.5 trillion with a target beneficiary of 614,480 people, the Ministry has also made changes to schemes in infrastructure programs or activities that were originally regular to be implemented with a Labor Intensive pattern with a budget allocation of Rp654 billion and target beneficiaries of as many as 80,000 people.
“By turning it into a labor-intensive scheme, jobs that can reduce employment due to the utilization of heavy equipment are replaced by maximizing human labor. We do not want infrastructure development to hinder job creation that is badly needed during the current pandemic,” Basuki said.
On the occasion, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani stated the two important variables to restore Indonesia’s economic growth, namely consumption and investment. “These two variables contribute almost 90% of the Indonesian economy. For this reason, the Government through the State Budget will continue to strive to use the allocated budget to restore people’s purchasing power so that public consumption can recover,” she said.
The Minister also urged all ministries/agencies to immediately spend the State Budget in the third quarter for programs that directly benefit the public, such as labor-intensive programs. (BKP Kementerian PUPR/EN)
Translated by: Fairuzzamani Inayatillah
Reviewed by: Mia M. Bonaedy
