TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President-elect Joko Widodo is mulling over using some funds from a number of progams in his future ministries for village development. Jokowi is weighing this option as his administration would only receive Rp9.1 trillion to be disbursed to villages as regulated in the Village Law.
“In some ministries, there are village-related programs. These will be consolidated to collect up to Rp30 trillion,” said Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Budiman Sudjatmiko on Tuesday.
Another alternative to gather more funds for villages, he went on, was from fuel subsidy. “We can collect around Rp70 trillion from fuel subsidy,” he said.
In the 2015 state budget plan, the allocated budget for villages is Rp9.1 trillion while the Jokowi-Kalla administration will need around Rp64 trillion. Budiman said Jokowi was upbeat that he could grant Rp2 billion to every village.
Previously, the House's budgetary board head, Ahmadi Noor Supit, said the board was willing to support Jokowi's progams, which, among others, included implementing the Village Law.
In his presidential campaigns, Jokowi had pledged to fulfill the law's mandate by earmarking Rp1 billion for every village.
ANANDA TERESIA