STATE BUDGETING REGULATION AND LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK DURING PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCIES

Abstract

When faced with the impact of the crisis triggered by COVID-19, authorities in various countries realized that this time the crisis was completely different (Heimberger, 2023). The coronavirus outbreak resulted in a health crisis and an unprecedented decline in economic activity in history (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2020). Fiscal as one of the instruments to control the crisis, also has various procedural limitations. The regulatory framework in Indonesia only provides implementation procedures in an emergency. Meanwhile, to mitigate the impact of large shocks such as the COVID-19 outbreak, a certain level of flexibility is needed which is not possessed by the current fiscal rules (Bandaogo, 2020). This study aims to answer two research questions, first, why the government chose to create a new emergency budgeting procedure, and second, what are the legal implications of the emergency health budgeting procedure on the state budget? The research was conducted using normative legal research methods, with a statutory approach and conceptual approach at the same time. The results showed that Indonesian regulations do not have state budgeting procedures in emergencies, other than state budget implementation procedures. These implementation procedures are inadequate to deal with the impact of the crisis created by COVID-19, so the government created new emergency procedures. On the other hand, this new procedure has legal implications in the form of ignoring the constitutional principles of state budgeting, suspending twelve laws related to fiscal policy, and creating enormous legal immunity for the government in implementing fiscal policies.