Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – The Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that the government’s debt ratio of 39.57 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was considered healthy.
The reason is that this ratio is still under the stipulation of law (UU) which regulates government debt at a maximum of 60 percent of GDP.
“You are obsessed that what is considered healthy is that the country has no debt, yes there is none. All countries, even Brunei Darussalam and Saudi Arabia, have debt,” Sri Mulyani said at the “Indonesian Media Public Lecture” which was monitored online in Jakarta, Friday.
She said the debt ratio tends to decrease from the previous ratio which was in the range of 40 percent of GDP when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Debt reduction, said the State Treasurer, was carried out by the government by continuing to pursue state revenue, especially when the economy was good.
Therefore, tax reform continues to be carried out to increase state revenue, both in terms of income tax (PPh) for individuals, corporate income tax, value added tax (VAT), export taxes, import duties, export duties and royalties.
All of this state revenue continues to be collected so that it can finance state spending for the community so that the government does not need to finance through debt.
“So if we talk about debt management, it is synonymous with managing our entire State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN),” she said.
She revealed that government debt management was carried out wisely, so that various international rating agencies also gave a good rating for Indonesia’s debt, which tended to be at the BBB level with a stable outlook.
The various international institutions in question include Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investor Service, and Standard and Poor’s (S&P). (mhn/bbs)
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