REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Revenue and spending in the 2018 state budget remained under control despite the government not having submitted a revision, a senior official stated. Budgetary Director General of the Ministry of Finance Askolani said that good state budget management was able to increase tax receipts that recorded a double-digit increase.

"Implementation of the state budget this year is far better than that in the previous years," Askolani informed the media here on Wednesday.

Non-tax revenues also performed better owing to a hike in the global oil prices, while budget absorption is better this year as compared to that during the 2015-2017 period.

"The budget deficit is also smaller than the target set in the state budget (APBN). This is the first achievement where we can control the deficit, much smaller than 2.19 percent," he noted.

This achievement is also apparent from the optimization of tax revenues and the effectiveness of state expenditures since the start of the year until the first semester of 2018. Thus, the government no longer needs to submit a revised APBN.

He noted that the government's performance could slow down if there is a proposal for a revised State Budget in the middle of the year. This is because ministries and state institutions must re-do the document revision and draft the expenditure budget.

"The benefit derived from the absence of the revised budget is that government ministries and institutions can focus on carrying out the tasks. If we submit a budget revision, we must make changes to documents and designs," Askolani stated.

Askolani expressed hope that performance of the Ministry of Institutions would continue to be maintained for the 2019 budget year to ensure more effective and efficient budget management to support the established development targets.

The Ministry of Finance had earlier noted that until mid-October 2018, the realization of budget deficit had reached 1.6 percent of the gross domestic product, or Rp237 trillion, due to the growth in tax revenues and state expenditure.

Realization of the budget deficit came from state revenues amounting to Rp1,483.9 trillion, or 78.3 percent of the target, and state expenditure that had reached Rp1,720.8 trillion, or 77.5 percent of the ceiling.

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