Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s House of Representatives has approved the 2022 state budget bill, marking the beginning of the process of fiscal consolidation of the largest economy in Southeast Asia after nearly two years of heavy spending on COVID-19 response efforts.

The bill sets Indonesia’s state budget deficit at 868 trillion rupiah (60.61 billion USD) next year, or 4.85 percent of Indonesia GDP, the same figure mentioned by President Joko Widodo in his national message on August 16.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the bill could help Indonesia bring the budget deficit below the 3 percent threshold.

The finance minister pledged to closely monitor funding sources for the state budget.

Next year, the Indonesian government aims to collect 1.51 trillion rupiah from taxes and 335 trillion rupiah from non-tax sources. However, Mulyani said that the uncertainty of the global economic recovery process would be the main factor affecting the state budget collection next year./.