Sri Mulyani Delays State Budget Performance Announcement: Data Still Very Unstable

JAKARTA, KOMPAS -- Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani admitted that her party had deliberately postponed the announcement of the performance of the State Budget (APBN) for January 2025. The postponement was made to avoid misinterpretation, as the country's financial data at the beginning of the year is considered "very unstable."

After one month of not appearing before the public to present the performance of the State Budget (APBN), Sri Mulyani and officials from the Ministry of Finance finally held a press conference on the State Budget Performance and Facts (APBN KiTa) on Thursday morning (13/3/2025).

Starting the press conference, which is currently under the spotlight, Sri Mulyani immediately stated that she was aware the public had been anticipating the presentation of the January 2025 state budget performance, which should have been reported since mid-February 2025.

She explained that the reason behind the postponement of the announcement of state budget data at the beginning of the year was due to the assessment that the country's financial data was still unstable. "We see that the data is still very unstable due to various factors," said Sri Mulyani at the Ministry of Finance building, Jakarta.

Based on that, the Ministry of Finance postponed reporting the performance of the State Budget (APBN) for the January 2025 period to the public until the data is sufficiently stable. This is expected to reduce the potential for misinterpretation regarding the state of the country's finances.

"We are considering waiting until the data is sufficiently stable so that we can provide the 2025 state budget implementation report on a much more stable basis. The term is 'mango to mango' comparison, to avoid any misinterpretation," he said.

As previously reported, the government had postponed the release of the state budget performance report for one month. Previously, a similar delay of nearly a month had also been carried out by the Ministry of Finance following the inauguration of President Prabowo Subianto in October 2024.

The postponement of the APBN performance report, which has been done twice in the Prabowo era, has also raised questions in several circles. The Ministry of Finance is expected to maintain the culture of state financial transparency that has been carried out so far.

Kompas noted that previously, the Ministry of Finance had almost never failed to report the APBN condition to the public routinely every month, even during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

The day before holding the APBN KiTa press conference, the Ministry of Finance accidentally published the January 2025 APBN report on the official website on Wednesday (12/3/2025) morning. In a short time, the document was immediately removed from the Ministry of Finance website.

The report that had already been "leaked" noted that state revenues had dropped significantly at the beginning of the year. Tax revenues until January 31, 2025, for example, only reached Rp115.18 trillion or fell 34.48 percent annually. Meanwhile, tax payments fell by 41.86 percent annually, or only reached Rp88.89 trillion at the end of January.

The APBN in the first two months has experienced a deficit of IDR 31.2 trillion.

During the APBN Kita press conference on Thursday morning, the Ministry of Finance chose to combine the APBN performance data reports for the January and February 2025 periods at once, not just limited to the achievements until the end of January.

So, is there much difference? Based on data from the Ministry of Finance, the state revenues during the first two months of 2025 still fell quite significantly on an annual basis, although not as drastic as the revenues achieved in the first month or as of January 2025.

Until February 28, 2025, state revenues collected have only reached Rp316.9 trillion. In detail, tax revenues (taxes and customs) are only Rp240.4 trillion or 9.7 percent of the APBN target. The realization decreased by 24.9 percent annually.

New tax deposits collected Rp187.8 trillion or 8.6 percent of the APBN target. The achievement fell 30.1 percent compared to the previous year which reached Rp269.02 trillion.

Meanwhile, the performance of revenue from customs and excise is monitored better, which is Rp 52.6 trillion or has reached 17.5 percent of the APBN target. Annually, for customs and excise, there is an increase of 2.1 percent.

For non-tax deposit performance, there was a decline, although slight. Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) collected Rp 76.4 trillion or 14.9 percent of this year's APBN target, down 4.15 percent.

Amid the government's massive efficiency policy, total state spending as of February 28, 2024 still reached IDR 348.1 trillion or 9.6 percent of the APBN target. Annually, government spending fell 7 percent compared to last year's realization of IDR 374.32 trillion.

With the condition of the revenue that has plunged, the State Budget in the first two months has experienced a deficit of Rp 31.2 trillion. That is equivalent to a deficit of 0.13 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

This deficit is still within the APBN design target.

On an annual basis, there was a significant decline. In comparison, as of February 29, 2024, state finances were still experiencing a surplus of IDR 26.04 trillion or 0.11 percent of GDP.

Sri Mulyani assessed that there was no need to worry because the budget deficit was still far below the target set in the 2025 State Budget, which was IDR 616.2 trillion or 2.53 percent of GDP. "So, this deficit is still within the target of the State Budget design," she said.

However, Executive Director of the Center of Economics and Law Studies (CELIOS) Bhima Yudhistira said that the achievement of the APBN at the beginning of this year was one of the worst in history. He considered this as Sri Mulyani's "red report card" at the beginning of the year as finance minister.

"The crisis in tax revenues could pose a risk of uncontrolled debt growth. The biggest mistake in managing the government budget started with an ambitious government program, not accompanied by an increase in tax sources," he said.