2011 DRAFT STATE BUDGET REDUCED

Jakarta, Aug 16 (ANTARA) - The government has reduced the 2011 draft state budget by Rp 16.5 from Rp 201 trillion to Rp184.8 trillion.

The decline was to improve efficiency and the quality of state's expenditures, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said when presenting the 2011 draft state budget at a House plenary session here Monday.

The state has a duty to maintain the prices of basic needs, relieve the burden of the people, and keep the producers to produce the needs at reasonable prices.

"Therefore, we still need to provide budget allocations for subsidies. To improve the efficiency and quality of government spendings, we need to rearrange the subsidy policy," he said.

The government also need to develop a rigorous selection system to determine appropriate subsidy target recipients, based on transparent database.

Related to that, the President explained about the increase of 12-15 percent of electricity basic tariff for industry and over 900 VA customers.

"We have calculated the increase in the price of electricity which is expected not to cause a heavy burden to industries in their production, especially to customers of micro businesses and small businesses," he said.

The government subsidies through the state consist of four sectors namely, fuel subsidies, electricity subsidies, food and fertilizer subsidies.
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