INDONESIA INCREASING AID TO PEOPLE

It involves food, cash assistance, subsidies and health sector budget, among others

INDONESIA is looking to set aside 39 trillion rupiah to be distributed to the people affected by the emergency Community Activities Restrictions Enforcement (PPKM), imposed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, revealed this here over the weekend, according to the Antara News agency.

“President Joko Widodo has instructed his ministers to channel aid to the people to alleviate their burden during the emergency PPKM,” he said in an online press conference.

Luhut, who is also coordinator for the emergency PPKM, said Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini were tasked with ensuring the social assistance materialised soon.

The aid includes the distribution of 10 kilogrammes of rice each to 18.9 million families and cash assistance to 10 million families.

“The government will later provide additional aid in the form of basic necessities to 18.9 million beneficiary families.”

The government will also increase the budget for 5.9 million families at the request of regional governments, allocate 10 trillion rupiah for the pre-employment card programme, and extend electricity subsidies for households consuming 450-900 voltampere of power by another three months until December, Pandjaitan said.

“(We) will also extend the Internet quota subsidy for students, university students, teachers, and lecturers and subsidy for base electricity tariffs by another six months until December.”

The government will raise the budget for the health sector to 13.21 trillion rupiah to cover the medical treatment of Covid-19 patients, provision of incentives to vaccinators, construction of field hospitals, purchase of oxygen, and distribution of two million packages of free Covid-19 drugs, among other things.