IT takes almost a year for the national budget to be proposed and approved. At the House of Representatives (DPR), this process begins every May. “Usually the deliberations are over by October 26,” said Tamsil Linrung, head of the DPR Budgetary Board and member of the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS), last week.

This process begins when the government holds the National Development Planning Meeting, which comes up with the government’s