Govt To Cut Gas Converter kit Budget

Jakarta, May 16 (Antara) - The budget allocation for gas converter kit procurement is one of the budget entries which will be cut by the government in its drive to streamline the swelling of its ministries expenditure, a minister said. "The allocation of Rp200 billion for the procurement of converter kits will be cut by Rp50 billion," Industry Minister MS Hidayat said. He said that the budget for the converter kits would be reduced because many refueling stations were not yet ready to install devices and to prepare supporting infrastructure. "We will set aside the budget based on the readiness of refueling stations. We will return the budged reduction this year, but will take it again next year," the minister said. In total, the Ministry of Industry will have its budget allocations cut by Rp183 billion. The cut budget has previously designed for regional governments` expenditure but the programs could still be delayed. "There are regional governments who are not yet ready to carry out their programs so that their budget could be delayed until next year," Hidayat said. In the meantime, Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said the government would not cut the Education and Culture Ministry`s budget. "A big budget cut will take place in 15 ministries, except in the ministry of education and culture because the law has regulated that education and culture ministry`s budget could reach up to 20 percent of the total state budget," Hatta said before attending a coordination meeting on ministry budget cut here on Wednesday. The minister said that the plan to reduce ministries` budget would be carried out to stop increasing budget deficit and unnecessary expenditure on official trips and building constructions. He said that the cut would be carried out proportional to the allocation of the ministries` work plan as well as to their goods and service procurement plan. "We will proportionally assess the ministries` budget based on the value of their work plan. We will not see only the amount of the budget but also their work plans," the chief economic minister said. In the meantime, National Development Planning Minister/Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Armida Alisjahbana said the budget cut would be carried out to preserve the country`s fiscal resilience and to make expenditure more efficient. "Of course this is difficult. Because we are now in the month of May when we have to see what parts of the budget that really needs to be cut so that it would not disturb work target," Minister Armida said. Armida ascertained the budget that would be cut included the one for non operational expenditure whose implementation was still delayed and whose cut would not disturb development. "Of course each ministry will have different amount of budget cuts. The amount of budget cut cannot be equal," she said. The government this year is streamlining the budget of ministries in an effort to reduce the 2013 budget deficit which is estimated at 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Total budget cuts amounted to Rp24.6 trillion of the ministries budget. There are seven ministries whose budget cuts reached over Rp1 trillion, namely the Ministry of Public Works with a budget cut of Rp6.1 trillion, the Ministry of Transportation (Rp2.6 trillion), the Ministry of Health (Rp1.9 trillion), the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (1.4 trillion), the Ministry of Agriculture (Rp1.4 trillion), the Ministry of Defense (Rp1.3 trillion) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (1.2 trillion).