REGIONAL BUDGETS SHOULD ALSO PROVIDE FISCAL STIMULI: BI

Jakarta, Jan 30 (ANTARA) - Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Boediono suggested that financial stimuli should be provided not only through the state budget (APBN) but also through regional budgets (APBD).

"The fiscal stimulus program is good but it would be better if it is provided not only through the APBN but also through the APBD," the BI governor said.
Boediono made the remark in a workshop on how to increase the roles of regional development banks (BPD) in an effort to accelerate regional development here on Thursday.
"The implementation of the program in the field should be given attention, and hopefully it could be carried out in the beginning of the year because the disbursement of funds in large scales is usually made only in the fourth quarter," he said.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a hearing with the House Financial Commission here recently that the government was preparing a fiscal stimuli to anticipate the impact of the global economic crisis.
The fiscal stimuli which was set in the 2009 state budget amounted to Rp71.3 trillion or about 1.4 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP).
She said that the stimuli would include Rp3.5 trillion (or 0.07 percent of GDP) in government-borne value added taxes (PPNDTP) and government-borne import duty (BMDTP) subsidies, Rp2.5 trillion (0.05 percent) MBDTP in subsidy for raw materials and capital goods, Rp6.5 trillion (0.12 percent) in employee income taxes (PPh) and Rp0.8 trillion (0.02 percent) for geothermal income taxes.
Besides, there would also be subsidies of Rp2.8 trillion (0.05 percent) in the form of cuts in diesel oil prices, Rp1.4 trillion (0.03 percent) in the form of discount during electricity peak load hours, Rp10 trillion for additional infrastructure expenditures and Rp0.6 trillion (0.01 percent) for extension of the people's empowerment program.