Responding to President's Directions, Minister of Social Affairs Encourages Distribution of 2,010 Tons of Rice to Informal Workers Affected by Java-Bali Pandemic

Writer :

Koesworo

Translator :

Karlina Irsalyana

JAKARTA (July 18, 2021) - President Joko Widodo has instructed relevant ministers to accelerate the distribution of social assistance and free medicines to the public. The assistance is expected to ease the burden on the community amid the Emergency Community Activity Restriction (PPKM) policy.

"I ask not to be late, whether it is PKH (Family Hope Program), Cash Direct Assistance (BLT), Cash Social Assistance (BST), don't be late. And the most important thing is rice aid and basic food assistance. This week it has to come out, hurry up, it has to be accelerated," said President Joko Widodo while chairing a limited meeting via video conference on the evaluation of Emergency PPKM from the Merdeka Palace, yesterday.

At the direction of the President, the Minister of Social Affairs, Tri Rismaharini, and his staff moved quickly. The Minister decided to increase regular social assistance as well as additional special assistance to meet basic needs in the form of rice. "For the PKH social assistance and Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) / Basic Food (Sembako) Cards, they have been distributed since early July," said the Minister in a press conference on the Evaluation of Emergency PPKM Implementation, via teleconference.

Present together on the occasion were Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut B. Pandjaitan, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, and Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono.

In general, in the context of implementing social protection programs, MoSA optimizes regular social assistance programs, namely PKH, Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) / Sembako Cards, and BST. PKH is distributed for the third time, for July-August-September, distributed in July 2021.

"MoSA has also disbursed BST for 10 million beneficiary families (KPM) for 2 months, namely May-June, which was disbursed in July. Then as many as 18.8 million KPM BPNT / sembako cards get an additional time for two months, namely in July and August," said the Minister.

The budget for PKH amounted to IDR 28.3 trillion, and BPNT/Sembako Cards amounted to IDR 42.3 trillion which was distributed through State-Owned Banks (Himbara). Then for BST, a budget of IDR 15.1 trillion was distributed by PT Pos Indonesia. "With this social assistance, it is hoped that it will increase people's purchasing power," said the Minister.

In addition, MoSA with Perum Bulog distribute rice with a total volume of 200,000,000 kg for 10 million KPM PKH and 10 million KPM BST with a large package of 10 kg per KPM. "Perum Bulog has a task to distribute, while MoSA only sends recipient data to the Minister of Finance. The purpose of distributing rice is to meet some of the basic needs of KPM affected by the pandemic," said the Minister.

In addition, there is also rice assistance of @ 5 kg which is a special program from MoSA. Assistance is given to informal sector workers who cannot work because they are affected by Emergency PPKM.

They include street vendors, shop owners, motorcycle taxi drivers, freelancers, and so on in Java and Bali. “The data on the recipients of the 5 kg rice aid is from the local government's proposal. Recipients are those who do not receive or are not recipients of the 3 types of regular social assistance, namely PKH, BPNT/Sembako Cards, and BST," said the Minister.

Rice assistance was distributed through Regency/City Social Office for residents affected by Covid-19 in all regencies/cities in Java and Bali. "Each of them received 3,000 packages @ 5 kg for 122 regencies/cities, and 6,000 packages @ 5 kg for six provincial capitals," said the Minister.

2021-07-18
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