This paper attempts to present some plausible answers to the puzzles that exist in the conventional understanding of the government economic management in Indonesia during the oil export boom. It is said that Indonesian fiscal operations have been strictly under the balanced budget principle. However, the government in fact gave up this principle in order to avoid the expansionary impacts which would have arisen from the affluent oil revenues had the principle been held strictly. It is pointed out that the government, while keeping the principle officially, exercised delicate operations in that the budget surpluses were covertly accumulated by means of off-budget accounts. In the monetary policy, the sterilization of extra revenues through the commercial banks was adopted as an important means to avoid inflation. This policy was closely related to the government attitude towards the foreign borrowing during this period. There must have been, behind these policies, the government intention to build up the oil revenues for later spending to deal with structural adjustment problems, including the Dutch Disease, which were expected to arise because of the oil boom. These implicit policies have so far not attracted attention in the Indonesian economic studies.