TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the scarcity of personal protective equipment or PPE in Indonesia is not caused by a lack of money on the stateside. The minister said that the situation stems from the imbalance between supplies and increasing demand.

"Let me explain one more time that the problem with PPE and ventilators is not because we cannot afford it. It's not because [there is no] money. The bottleneck is in the supply side," Sri said in a tele-meeting with the DPR's Commission XI, Thursday, April 30.

Sri said that the state budget has been refocused for purchasing health equipment, as regulated in government regulation in lieu of the law (Perppu) no.1/2020, which the House approved.

The Covid-19 relief budget amounts to Rp75 trillion.

Sri said the procurement of PPE is the authority of the Covid-19 Task-force and the Health Ministry. "The procurement depends on them. There is no reason to say that there is no budget," she asserted.

Jemmy Kartiwa, chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API), said the PPE produced by the textile industry has not been well-absorbed by the government or the market. More than 50,000 have been produced, and the number is increasing. "If we include materials, we are ready to make 1.8 million pieces. Association members are worried that what we produce is not absorbed," he told Tempo on April 29.

LARISSA HUDA