Sri Mulyani Has Not Announced State Budget Performance, Ministry of Finance Transparency in Prabowo Era in the Spotlight

The Ministry of Finance has yet to announce the performance presentation of the State Budget for the January 2025 period. This is something unusual considering that every month the Ministry of Finance usually routinely presents the state's financial conditions and performance to the public.

The APBN performance report or APBN KiTa (Performance and Facts) release has so far been delivered two to three weeks after the end of the relevant month. There, journalists can ask various issues to Ministry of Finance officials. The public can also watch it via live broadcast on the Ministry of Finance's Youtube.

Not only verbal presentation, the Ministry of Finance also usually releases a monthly APBN performance report in written form or often called "Our APBN Book". Referring to the official website of the Ministry of Finance, the written report has been routinely published since December 2017.

In the APBN KiTa press conference, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and all directors general of the Ministry of Finance will usually explain the development of the country's economic and financial conditions. Starting from the performance of tax and non-tax revenues, state spending or expenditure, government debt, to responding to various current economic issues.

Before the Prabowo Subianto administration, the Ministry of Finance almost never had any "gaps" in reporting the performance of the State Budget, even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic when revenues fell sharply and the economy was hit.

Referring to the usual schedule, the press conference for the presentation of the January 2025 State Budget should have been held since the second or third week of February 2025. However, until the end of the first week of March 2025, there has been no "hilal" for the holding of the APBN KiTa press conference.

The written performance report of APBN KiTa, Kaleidoscope edition 2024 and January 2025 has also not been uploaded to the official website of the Ministry of Finance.

The last time the Ministry of Finance held the APBN KiTa release was on January 6, 2025 to present the performance in December 2024. Every time asked on various occasions, Ministry of Finance officials were reluctant to answer when they would announce the performance of the January 2025 APBN.

Deputy Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara, for example, only said something in passing in response to a journalist's question. "Oh, that (Our State Budget)? Yes, yes, yes, okay," he said while leaving the event location while speaking at CNBC Economic Outlook, Wednesday (26/2/2025).

Recently, the Ministry of Finance justified the agenda being postponed due to the difficulty of finding time amidst the leadership's busy agenda. "Considering the leadership's busy agenda, it is planned that the APBN KiTa press conference will be combined next month (March)," according to information provided by the Ministry of Finance staff via the Whatsapp group on Friday (28/2/2025).

When confirmed again, Thursday (6/3/2025), the Head of the Ministry of Finance's Communication and Information Services Bureau, Deni Surjantoro, repeated the same reason. The presentation of the APBN KiTa performance will not be opened to the public in the near future because there is no time. "We are still arranging the schedule because the agenda is very busy," he said via text message.

This is not the first time the Ministry of Finance has postponed the APBN performance report. Previously, after the Prabowo government was officially inaugurated, the Ministry of Finance was also absent from reporting the performance of the September 2024 APBN. It was only in November 2024 that the APBN performance was announced simultaneously for two months, namely September and October 2024.

The 2025 State Budget performance report at the beginning of this year is highly anticipated by the public. There are several underlying factors. First, it is the first fiscal performance indicator planned and managed directly by the Prabowo administration.

Although Prabowo has been managing the 2024 State Budget left by Jokowi since October 2024, he only continued the existing budget allocation and programs. This is different from the 2025 State Budget which was designed to accommodate Prabowo's policy direction, interests, and priority programs.

Second, there are several controversial fiscal policies taken by Prabowo at the beginning of his administration that could impact the performance of the APBN. For example, a massive budget cut of Rp 308 trillion which will impact the realization of state spending at the beginning of the year.

In addition, the implementation of the Coretax system since January 1, 2025, which until now is still problematic. The obstacles in the new tax system are suspected of potentially causing state revenues to decline throughout January 2025.

Bright Institute economist Awalil Rizky warned that the government's move to not announce the performance of the APBN could have a negative impact on market confidence. Moreover, investors and business actors have been accustomed to the transparency of information implemented by the Ministry of Finance.

The figures reported in the APBN KiTa presentation are often used as a basis for investors in making business decisions. There, they can get a fairly comprehensive picture of the condition of the Indonesian economy.

"So, this ambiguity will harm many parties. Market players such as investors and government partners will have difficulty making business plans and decisions. Even state administrators (bureaucracy) are confused about what to do," Awalil said when contacted.

The government is also reminded to maintain transparency of information related to the performance of the State Budget. Not only to maintain the trust of investors and business actors, but also the public as taxpayers who have contributed to maintaining state revenues.

"The public as taxpayers have the right to know what their tax money is used for development purposes. Maybe the government is afraid of being found out that the government's finances are currently limited when the programs being run have very large budget needs," said Center of Economics and Law Studies researcher Nailul Huda.

Similarly, he reminded that so far the release of the APBN KiTa presentation has been seen as a culture of good information transparency in the eyes of investors. If transparency fades in the Prabowo era, it will be a setback for the practice of public information transparency and democracy in Indonesia, which could ultimately hit the country's economy.

"Our APBN KiTa is actually considered a credible source of data to see how the country's financial management is. If access is not opened, the public will suspect that there is misappropriation or information that is deliberately covered up by the government," said Nailul.

Bank Permata Chief Economist Josua Pardede said investors are still waiting for developments in the announcement of the state budget performance going forward. He suspects that the delay in reporting is due to the impact of the budget efficiency policy and the problematic Coretax implementation issue which has had an impact on revenue.

"Or there is another agenda that the government considers more important so that it postpones the announcement of the realization of the APBN early this year. So, we'll just see how it develops in the future," said Josua.