Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Manpower targets the first phase of the 2022 Wage Subsidy Assistance (BSU) to be distributed this week or early next week at the latest.

"We are targeting that on Friday, it can be distributed. Right now, all of the legal documents have been completed," Secretary of the Directorate-General for Industrial Relations and Social Security at the Manpower Ministry Surya Lukita stated during a virtual discussion between the Indonesian Ombudsman, which was followed from Jakarta, Thursday.

Lukita noted that his side is completing the data matching process to later determine the beneficiaries.

The Ministry of Manpower was also still awaiting the disbursement of BSU funds from the Ministry of Finance.

Lukita estimates the number of prospective wage subsidy workers in 2022 to be at around 14,639,675 people. Funds worth around Rp8.783 trillion are allocated to provide wage subsidies.

The Ministry of Manpower has received data on 5,099,915 prospective recipients of the first phase of BSU 2022 from BPJS Ketenagakerjaan and is seeking to distribute their wage subsidies this week after progress in data matching.

Data matching is conducted to ensure that prospective BSU recipients have not received other social assistance from the government and are not state civil servants or members of the Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI) or National Police (Polri).

Each employee meeting the requirements will receive BSU worth Rp600 thousand through members of the State-Owned Bank Association (Himbara) and PT Pos Indonesia.

Lukita also noted that his ministry has prepared a landing page related to BSU distribution information.

"We will also prepare a search engine for people looking to check their eligibility for BSU. They can enter their social identity number (NIK) to check their data," he added.

The budget for BSU assistance came from the shift in fuel subsidy by the government into three types of assistance: fuel direct-cash assistance (BLT BBM), BSU, and assistance for public transport and fishermen.

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Translator: Prisca Triferna V, Resinta S
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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