VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Screenshot of Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin during an online press conference broadcast on YouTube by the Presidential Secretariat, Jakarta, Friday (25/6/2021). ANTARA/Indra Arief - 

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin made assurance that the government's budget for handling the COVID-19 pandemic was still available and could be utilized as swiftly and accurately as possible.

The budget was also confirmed by the health minister to the State Treasurer, Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

"Minister Sri Mulyani also said several times that there is no need to worry because the money is set aside, and it is just a matter of how we can use it as efficiently as possible," Sadikin stated during an online press conference broadcast on YouTube by the Presidential Secretariat, Jakarta, Friday.

Sadikin expounded that the budget specifically for handling COVID-19 reached Rp131 trillion and until June 2021, around 50 percent was absorbed.

"The budget for the special handling of COVID-19 reaches Rp131 trillion, and the absorption until June is still at around 50 percent,” the minister noted.

Sadikin remarked that the government had prepared another budget ceiling for handling COVID-19, specifically the regional budgets (APBD).

However, the absorption of budget for APBD was yet low.

"Another budget allocated is eight percent in the APBD. Absorption of that is still low. I do not remember the exact figure, but as far as I can recollect, it is still a dozen percent," he remarked.

Hence, the health minister has ensured no problems pertaining to the budget for handling COVID-19. The challenge is how to optimize the budget appropriately and quickly to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Regarding the budget? Yes. It is just a matter of how to use it as quickly as possible and as accurately as possible," the former deputy minister of SOEs stated.

The number of COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Indonesia. The latest data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force stated that the number of positive confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday (June 24) increased by 20,574 cases to a total of 2,053,955 cases since March 2020//ANT