JAKARTA: The government and the House of Representatives are one step closer to signing off on the 2025 state budget bill, but the draft leaves many questions unanswered regarding the impending government transition and funding for key projects.

During a joint budget meeting on Tuesday, House Budget Committee member Dolfie Othniel Frederic Palit raised the issue that there was no annex detailing programmes and functions for the allocation for ministries and government agencies.

“What will we agree on today? We don’t know the programmes and their budgets. We know the budget ceiling for ministry and government agency spending, but we don’t know the budget for each one,” said Dolfie.

The lawmaker then referred to Article 15 of Law No. 17/2003 on state finances, which states that the state budget approval must include details on “organisation units, functions, programmes”.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati argued that details on programmes and functions had been included in the Financial Notes - a document the budget plan is based on - and that there was “not enough time” to compile the latest updates on them.

“We must not insert article stipulations that will halt the new government just because of attachments. That’s what I’m concerned about,” said Sri Mulyani in the meeting.

The House and the government eventually considered the issue settled by virtue of a stipulation that allows for more detailed provisions to be included after the draft is passed into law.

To become legal, the draft budget needs to be passed by the House in a plenary session and then signed into law by the president.

What is a regular annual procedure is complicated this year by the fact that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration is the one that carved out the plan for president-elect Prabowo Subianto , who will be sworn into office in Oct 20.

Furthermore, the House has scrutinised or will scrutinise the budget plans of each ministry and agency, which requires the institutions to provide details on their organisation units, programmes and functions.

The formal budget drafting process began with the Financial Notes made public on Aug 16, with changes made along the way.

Passage of the budget plan does not preclude fleshing out the details by presidential regulation after the draft is passed into law.

Sri Mulyani said the budget had to be sufficiently “accommodative” and “flexible”, while “remaining accountable”, for the incoming administration to get straight to work.

Furthermore, she argued that providing more details was in any case impossible for now, since the outgoing government had “no idea” how Prabowo would choose to arrange his cabinet.

Speaking to reporters after the budget meeting, Dolfie dismissed concerns that this arrangement could be prone to abuse, given that budget planning for government programmes and functions, including the creation of new ministries and agencies, required House approval.

Deputy Finance Minister Thomas “Tommy” Djiwandono said on Sept 11 that the Finance Ministry was coordinating with the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry to harmonise policies for the creation of additional ministries under the incoming government.

“So, whatever is decided by the president-elect can be executed from the budget side,” said Tommy, who is Prabowo’s nephew and part of the president-elect’s inner circle.

He was appointed in July as deputy finance minister by the president in a move that was seen to facilitate the transition of power in October.

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) executive director Tauhid Ahmad told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that installing Prabowo aides in the current Cabinet was not enough to ensure a smooth transition, and therefore a state budget revision was on the cards.

Dolfie, however, said the general impression so far was for the incoming government “not to undertake” any state budget revision. Tauhid said the arrangement to allow for details to be fleshed out later was “legitimate, but the essence is missing”.

BCA chief economist David Sumual told the Post on Tuesday that the market would be understanding of remaining budget uncertainties during the transition period.

“I think investors are rational. The new government has not taken form yet, the ministers aren’t there yet, so the possibility of big changes is immense,” said David.

“Those who will run the programmes and all the details are not in the current government, they’ll be in the next one, meaning all the unanswered questions are fair. There’s nothing that can be done,” he added.

He approved of the current arrangement that left the budget plan flexible enough for the incoming government to mold further.

 - ANN