"As of November 2, 2020, under the PEN program, the distributed funds reached Rp366 trillion, or 51.9 percent of the total budget," Sadikin remarked during a virtual press conference from the Presidential Office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Sadikin affirmed that over Rp150 trillion had been disbursed under the PEN program in the third quarter as support to maintain Indonesia's economic growth and reduce deficit in the third quarter of 2020.
Sadikin spoke of the president having instructed to channel the PEN budget as much as possible in the fourth quarter of 2020.
"We are optimistic that the rest of the PEN budget of at least Rp100 trillion would be absorbed, and we could distribute it in the fourth quarter," he affirmed.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had earlier reiterated that the government’s key focus currently was to address public health problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and then economic recovery.
President Jokowi stressed that economic conditions would improve in synchrony with an improvement in health conditions.
The head of state affirmed that handling public health concerns optimally was the key to recovering from the crisis situation emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expediting efforts to facilitate domestic economic recovery would hinge largely on the results of the application of policies to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, he emphasized.
As of September 2020, the government had dispensed Rp304.6 trillion of its Rp695.2-trillion budget for COVID-19 handling and the economic recovery program, according to the National Economic Recovery and Transformation Task Force (Satgas PEN).
“Until the end of September, we have succeeded in disbursing around Rp304.6 trillion from a total of Rp695.2 trillion, or 43.8 percent (of the budget),” head of the PEN task force, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, confirmed.
The total funds of Rp695.2 trillion were distributed across six major sectors — Rp87.55 trillion for health, Rp203.9 trillion for social protection, Rp120.61 trillion for business incentives, Rp123.46 trillion for the MSME sector, and Rp53.57 trillion for corporate financing, with support from ministries and agencies as well as local governments amounting to Rp106.11 trillion.
“Since the task force was formed, Rp137.89 trillion was disbursed and per week, (under) both social protection and the MSME category, as well as sectoral ministries and local governments,” Sadikin stated.
In the social protection sector, the program, with the largest budget absorption, was the Family Hope Program (PKH), with a budget of Rp36.3 trillion, allocated for 10 million beneficiaries, or the poorest 40 million people in Indonesia, he pointed out.
A total of Rp31.9 trillion was distributed under the basic food card program to 19.4 million beneficiary families, or 80 million Indonesians from the lowest economic rung, including recipients of the Family Hope Program, he stated. Related news: Focusing on distributing social assistance funds: PEN task force
Related news: PEN budget realization by Finance Ministry reaches 52%
Translator: Rangga P, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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