Antara, Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan revealed that some ministries and governmental agencies were found swapping up the packages of imported products to appear as domestic products.
"This was audited by BPKP (Finance and Development Supervisory Agency)," Luhut said virtually in Sanur, Bali, on Tuesday.
However, Luhut Pandjaitan did not explain when BPKP conducted the audit. He also did not mention the types of sanctions planned to be imposed on the parties involved.
What is certain, said Luhut, is that expenditures sourced from foreign loans should still prioritize the use of domestic products and payments using the rupiah currency. Therefore, he asked BPKP to continue conducting audits and not hesitate to report the findings to the President.
Luhut Pandjaitan also explained that there are at least six strategies to strengthen domestic product spending, including improvement of digitized internal spending processes, transparency, and good governance. It also includes spending on domestic products at least 95 percent of the budget, as well as prioritizing locally manufactured products.
Not only that, but Luhut also mentioned the use of Indonesian credit cards and the development of an import reduction roadmap with a maximum import target of only five percent.
Luhut Pandjaitan noted that the realization of domestic product spending in 2023 reached Rp1,349.8 trillion, up from Rp749.5 trillion in 2022. Of that figure, Rp482 trillion was absorbed by state-owned enterprises, followed by ministries and institutions, and local governments.