Law and Fiscal Ethics in Indonesia: A Juridical Analysis of the Whoosh Project Financing Through the State Budget
Abstract
The financing of the Jakarta–Bandung High-Speed Rail (Whoosh) project has raised legal and ethical concerns regarding the use of Indonesia’s State Budget (APBN) to support commercial debt within a Public–Private Partnership (PPP) framework and its compatibility with fiscal law and good governance principles. This article seeks to evaluate whether the involvement of the APBN in the Whoosh project is consistent with the provisions of the State Finance Law, the State Treasury Law, and the beneficiary-pays principle, which mandates that the financial obligations arising from commercial activities be assumed by their direct beneficiaries. A normative juridical method is employed to interpret and evaluate the legal boundaries of APBN financing based on Law Number 17 of 2003 on State Finance, Law Number 1 of 2004 on State Treasury, Law Number 19 of 2003 on State-Owned Enterprises, and Presidential Regulation Number 38 of 2015 on Public–Private Partnerships (PPP). The study finds that the use of APBN funds for a commercially operated infrastructure project may contravene principles of fiscal accountability and proportionality embedded in Indonesian public finance law. It also raises concerns about intergenerational justice, as future taxpayers could inherit present commercial risks.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26532/jph.v13i2.49116
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