Fajarasia.co – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is furious because the central government, ministries/agencies, regional governments, and state-owned enterprises are still dominated by the budget and often buy imported products.
This was conveyed by the Head of State when giving a speech at the Opening of the 2022 Government Internal Supervision National Coordination Meeting, at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Tuesday (14/6/2022).
“Sad, this is people’s money, the money collected from taxes, both PPn, PPh, corporate PPh, individual PPh, employee PPh, from export duties, from PNPB is collected in a way that is not easy, then the shopping is for imported products. We are stupid,” said the President.
“Sorry, we are smart but if we do it like that, it’s very stupid. I have to say it as it is. This is the APBN, you know, this is APBD money, you buy imported products. We’re not stupid,” he said.
The President said that there are still many in the central and regional governments, ministries/agencies, and state-owned enterprises who are reluctant to buy domestic products for a number of reasons.
“I know that many ministries, many institutions, many regions do not want to buy domestic products for various reasons, the specs are not right, the quality is not good, there are many reasons,” he said.
The President revealed several examples of goods that are still imported from abroad. Like a low speed sewing machine.
The product is imported with a value of Rp. 13 million per unit. In fact, similar items are already available in the country at a cheaper price, which is Rp. 12.8 million per unit.
Second, the oxygen pipe. The medical equipment was purchased from abroad for Rp. 8,300 per unit. While domestically, the goods are sold for only Rp. 6,900 per unit.
“What’s the difference? It’s cheaper, obviously. But buying imports. I’ll check this. The reason is there. The quality, sir. The specs don’t match, sir. It’s like we people don’t understand specifications. There’s a reason one color is red, one color is white. I like the color white. None,” said the former mayor of Solo.
The Head of State even ordered his entire staff to keep buying local products, even though they were more expensive. He asked to prioritize domestic products.
“There are mechanical equipment that costs 22.9 million to import, 28 million domestically, still buy domestic ones. A little bit is okay because the added value is domestic, there are domestic jobs. There is no reason,” said the President. .
In addition, the Head of State asked the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP) and the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) to continue to oversee so that domestic products can dominate the spending of the central government, regional governments, ministries/agencies, and SOEs.****
