Less Than Two Hours of Discussion, DPR Approves Government Budget Efficiency Proposal

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – In less than two hours, Commission II and III of the House of Representatives approved the budget cut proposal from their working partners as a result of President Prabowo Subianto's instruction to streamline the government budget. The budget cut proposal was approved even though there was a request to change the nominal efficiency and the lifting of the budget block. The impact of the budget block at the Constitutional Court, for example, can only finance employee salaries and allowances until next May.

The Working Meeting and Hearing of Commission III of the DPR together with all its working partners with the agenda of discussing budget efficiency only lasted about 1.5 hours at the Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday (12/2/2025).

The working partners of Commission III of the DPR are the Judicial Commission, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, the Attorney General's Office, the Indonesian National Police, the Corruption Eradication Commission, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, and the National Narcotics Agency.

In turn, each agency briefly presented the 2025 budget ceiling and its budget efficiency value. After the brief presentation, members of the DPR from eight factions in parliament took turns to delve into the budget efficiency of each agency.

As a result, Commission III of the House of Representatives approved the budget cut proposal and budget saving measures from each working partner. The budget efficiency approval was also considered to be in accordance with Presidential Instruction Number 1 of 2025 concerning Spending Efficiency in the Implementation of the State Budget and Regional Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 which was issued at the end of January.

According to the Chairman of Commission III of the DPR, Habiburokhman, this joint meeting with all working partners is a follow-up to the latest reconstruction budget from the ministries/institutions. In the Letter of the Minister of Finance Number S-37/MK.02/2025, it is also stated that the amount of budget efficiency must be submitted to the Minister of Finance no later than February 14, 2025, with prior approval from the DPR.

Although the budget cuts were approved, several institutions stated that the budget efficiency also had an impact on public services. In fact, the Judicial Commission (KY) to the Constitutional Court (MK) requested a reduction in the efficiency value but the request was still not responded to by the DPR.

Deputy Chairperson of the KY Siti Nurdjanah revealed that the budget cuts had an impact on public services and enforcement of the Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Judges' Conduct (KEPPH). Based on the results of the efficiency reconstruction, the 2025 KY budget will not be cut by around Rp100 billion, but will be reduced to Rp74.7 billion. Thus, the KY budget ceiling will be Rp109 billion.

"The existence of budget efficiency will certainly have an impact on the plan and target for implementing tasks in 2025, including aspects of public services and enforcement of KEPPH," said Siti.

However, Siti still ensures that her party optimizes the available budget ceiling. They also set priorities for implementing minimum offices, priorities for implementing institutional tasks and functions, including by making changes and updates to work implementation methods without reducing the quality of results.

Several budget adjustments were made, including for electricity, water in the center and regions, rent for KY liaison offices in 20 regions, official vehicle rental, fuel costs, leadership operations, banquet costs and honoraria.

Meanwhile, in the implementation of the selection of prospective supreme judges, his party has allocated a budget of around Rp 3.5 billion. "KY is an institution with a small budget category that carries out the duties of the law with a scope of territory not only in the Center but also in 20 regions through the Judicial Commission Liaison," said Siti.

For that, KY requested an additional budget of Rp 63 billion. Thus, the KY Budget Ceiling in 2025 will be Rp 172.9 billion by considering spending efficiency. "In accordance with the reports submitted in several discussions, the Judicial Commission hereby requests that the intended efficiency value be considered, and efforts can be made to exercise it again so that the KY Ceiling in 2025 is Rp 172,933,843,330, by considering spending efficiency," he said.

Meanwhile, MK Secretary General Heru Setiawan explained that the MK's budget ceiling in 2025 was IDR 611.4 billion. Meanwhile, budget realization has reached 51.73 percent or equivalent to IDR 316 billion. Thus, the remaining budget in 2025 is around IDR 295 billion.

"The remaining budget is currently Rp295 billion. We allocate Rp83 billion for employee expenses and Rp198 billion for goods expenses, and Rp13 billion for capital expenses," Heru said.

However, based on information from the Director General of Budget of the Ministry of Finance, the Constitutional Court received a budget block of Rp 226 billion. Thus, the remaining budget that can be used is only Rp 69 billion.

Heru said the remaining budget was allocated for salary and allowance payments of Rp45 billion, PPNPN and contract workers payments of Rp13 billion. Power and service subscriptions of Rp9 billion, outsourcing workers of Rp610 million and honorarium for assistance in organizing court cases of Rp409 million. "Thus, we have an impact on the cuts. We allocate salaries and allowances of Rp45 billion. We allocate until May 2025," he said.

Another impact is that commitments in the context of General Election Result Disputes (PHPU) and Regional Elections cannot be paid because there is no remaining budget including the need to handle the Judicial Review of Laws (PUU), Disputes over the Authority of State Institutions (SKLN), and other cases until the end of the year.

Not only that, commitments for office maintenance such as building maintenance, vehicles, machine equipment and other basic office needs also cannot be paid.

Related to the impact, the Constitutional Court also requested additional budget, namely salary and allowance payments of Rp 38 billion for June to December. Then, office maintenance operations of Rp 20 billion. Handling of five-yearly regional election cases and PUU of Rp 130 billion.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Supreme Court (MA), Sugiyanto said, budget cuts in the MA have affected the judges' transportation allowances to public services. According to him, the judges' transportation assistance is only sufficient for 6 months and the integrated service for the district court's mobile trial, the holding of religious courts or sharia courts is only sufficient for 6 months and military courts are only 1 time a year.

According to Sugiyanto, the Supreme Court experienced budget efficiency of up to Rp2.2 trillion from the 2025 public budget ceiling of Rp12.6 trillion. "Of course, it significantly resulted in a decline in the quality of public services and other Supreme Court official activities," said Sugiyanto.

Not only the partners of Commission III of the DPR, the budget efficiency proposals of ministries/institutions that are partners of Commission II of the DPR also went smoothly. In just about an hour, Commission II of the DPR decided to approve the change in the 2025 APBN allocation ceiling as a follow-up to the President's instructions.

The meeting went quickly, each ministry/institution leader only explained the nominal budget ceiling and the budget value that was streamlined. From the presentation by each minister/institution head, no one objected to the budget cuts by the Ministry of Finance.

The ministry/institution whose budget efficiency was approved by Commission II of the DPR is the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN). The budget ceiling of this ministry before the efficiency was IDR 6.4 trillion. Then, it was affected by efficiency of IDR 2.3 trillion from the ceiling. However, after being discussed and reconstructed with the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu), the efficiency value was only IDR 2 trillion. So, the remaining ceiling of the ministry is IDR 4.4 trillion.

In addition to the Ministry of ATR/BPN, the budget efficiency of the Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (Kemenpan and RB) of Rp184.9 billion was approved by Commission II of the DPR, so that the remaining ceiling is Rp208 billion. "Efficiency in Kemenpan and RB is not in employee spending, but in management support programs and policy programs, professional development and ASN governance," said Minister of PAN and RB Rini Widyantini.

Furthermore, the budget ceiling for the General Election Commission (KPU) of Rp 3.06 trillion, was streamlined by Rp 843.2 million, leaving the budget ceiling at Rp 2.2 trillion. Meanwhile, the budget ceiling for the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), which was originally Rp 2.4 trillion, was streamlined by Rp 955 billion, leaving the remaining budget ceiling at Rp 1.4 trillion.

Meanwhile, the State Civil Service Agency (BKN) which originally had a budget ceiling of Rp 798 billion, was streamlined by Rp 195.1 billion to leave Rp 603.2 billion. The efficiency value at BKN changed to be smaller than the original Rp 285.2 billion after being reconstructed with the Ministry of Finance.

"Efficiency at BKN includes, among others, official travel, saving electricity, water, and telephone, fuel, and coordination package activities," said BKN Head Zudan Arif Fakrulloh.

Deputy Chairman of Commission II of the House of Representatives from the PDI-P Faction Aria Bima hopes that the massive efficiency carried out by the government at this time can still have an impact on economic growth. According to him, budget efficiency steps for programs needed by the community are more appropriate than increasing debt.

Furthermore, after Commission II of the DPR approves, and later the budget ceiling after the reallocation is agreed, his party will monitor its use.

"We will monitor the budget absorption. Don't let it happen, after saving, after being made efficient, all budget absorption is only at the end of the year, maintain absorption periodically," he said.