Constitutional Court Tests Budget Law
Tuesday, 23 January, 2007 | 14:53 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Constitutional Law has carried out an initial material law testing session for Law Number 18/2006 regarding the 2007 State Budget.

“The government broke its promise as regards increasing the educational budget to 20 percent,” said Chairman of the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) Mohammad Surya at the Constitutional Court Building, Wednesday (01/24), in Jakarta.

In the 2007 State Budget, said Surya, the government only allocated budget 11.8 percent, or around Rp90.1 trillion, for the educational sector of the total budget of Rp763.6 trillion.

In fact, he continued, Article 31 Section 4 of the 1945 Constitution states that the educational budget is to be at least 20 percent.

In the preceding session led by judge I Dewa Palguna, it was requested that the appellant completed the appeal by using the state budget’s method of calculation.

“We will bring the files to a plenary session of constitutional judges,” said Palguna as he closed the session that was also attended by former Education Minister Wardiman Djojonegoro.

It was the second time that PGRI had proposed the material test over the state budget.

Earlier, PGRI performed a material test of Law 13/2005 on the 2006 State Budget as it only allocated 9.1 percent of the total budget for education.

TITO SIANIPAR