PALANGKA RAYA – EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION BUREAU. During his working visit to Central Kalimantan province, the Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian accompanied by the Vice Governor of Central Kalimantan, Edy Pratowo, held a Coordination Meeting with Regents and Mayor throughout Central Kalimantan, at Jayang Tingang Hall, Governor’s Office, Palangka Raya City, on Thursday (27/5/2021).

This coordination meeting was held in order to discuss the acceleration of the realization of the Provincial and Regency / Municipality Regional Budget (APBD) in Central Kalimantan and efforts to deal with COVID-19. “I visited Central Kalimantan Province in order to discuss two things directly and virtually with regencies / municipality. The first is regarding the realization of regional budget and handling of COVID-19, “said Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian in his press statement after the Coordination Meeting.

The Minister of Home Affairs explained that accelerating the realization of the regional budget is very important for economic recovery in the midst of pandemic. “We know that government spending is the main expenditure in the midst of this pandemic. We hope that the central and regional government expenditures in aggregate or total accumulative terms, especially in the second quarter, can accelerate the realization in order to restore our economy,” said Minister Tito Karnavian.

The Minister of Home Affairs also stated that President Joko Widodo repeatedly ordered the realization of government spending to be accelerated, but it had to be right on target. “So, regions must also contribute to accelerating their spending, but spending must be on target, which can stimulate the economy of its programs, not just running out of money,” said the Minister of Home Affairs.

Furthermore, Minister Tito Karnavian said he was quite satisfied with the progress of the realization of the Regional Budget in Central Kalimantan, but would continue to monitor it. The Minister of Home Affairs also asked for the support of all stakeholders, especially the Regional Leadership Coordination Forum to oversee the acceleration of the expenditure realization.

“I have had discussions, I have listened to what is quite positive input in Central Kalimantan, where the expenditure realization has been, it has increased quite well, some have even reached almost 30 percent, some are below 20 percent, but already have a commitment to raise it,” said the Minister of Home Affairs.

Previously, during the Coordination Meeting, Vice Governor Edy Pratowo said that Central Kalimantan’s economic growth in the first quarter of 2021 experienced a contraction of minus 3.12% due to the weakening of the mining sector and constraints on government administration and construction services, but it is believed that it will improve considerably in the following quarters. “We remain optimistic that in the second and third quarters we can return to a positive direction because the government sector has started to normalize, supported by the main harvest in the Food Estate sector and an increase in the price of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) for Palm Oil,” said the Vice Governor.

It was also reported that the realization of Central Kalimantan Province’s regional budget as of May 25, 2021 reached 26.52% of the total Rp. 4.8 trillion, which is Rp. 1.2 trillion. Meanwhile, the overall absorption of financial realization for regencies / municipality in Central Kalimantan was close to Rp. 3 trillion or 17.35%. One of the obstacles to budget absorption in regencies / municipality is the refocusing of TKDD 2021 for handling COVID-19, so it must reallocate several priority activities.

The Vice Governor then put forward a number of steps to accelerate budget absorption that have been and will be carried out by the Central Kalimantan Provincial Government including: channeling Provincial Tax Revenue Sharing Funds to Regencies / Municipality in which the 2020 tax target channeled in May is more than Rp 241 billion; payment of the Phase II Multi Years Contract at the end of May 2021 amounting to Rp 560 billion; has carried out refocusing and budget reallocation in order to follow up on PMK Number 17 / PMK.07 / 2021; encourage regional government institutions in accelerating the implementation of activities / auction; and accelerating the completion of financial administration.

Vice Governor Edy Pratowo also revealed that the Central Kalimantan Provincial Government has allocated an Unexpected Expenditure (BTT) budget of more than IDR 42 billion for the prevention of COVID-19 in the health sector, with a realization of 47.24%, which is more than IDR 20 billion. Then, the allocation of social protection and economic support has also been prepared, reaching more than Rp. 109 billion, with the realization of more than Rp. 7 billion or 6.61%. “Hopefully, with this allocation, it can stimulate the acceleration of regional economic recovery in the Central Kalimantan region,” concluded the Vice Governor.

Furthermore, this Coordination Meeting was also attended by the Chief of Central Kalimantan Regional Police Inspector General Pol Dedi Prasetyo, Director General of Regional Finance at the Ministry of Home Affairs Mochamad Ardian N., Provincial Secretary of Central Kalimantan Fahrizal Fitri, Kasrem 102 / Pjg Colonel Czi Wakhyono, and Vice Head of High Prosecutor of Central Kalimantan Marang, as well as a number of Regents / Mayor. (set/dmr/eka/translated by feb)