On January 29, the government had announced its plan to distribute direct cash assistance of Rp200 thousand (around US$12) per person to a total of 18.8 million poor people across the country.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) affirmed that the House of Representatives (DPR) had approved the government's use of a portion of the State Budget (APBN) for distributing social assistance this year.

Jokowi made the statement to dismiss issues regarding the government's use of social aid as a means to endorse a pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 presidential election.

"I would like to reiterate that everything has been approved by the DPR through its mechanism. It is not the government's one-sided decision. That is not how our country works," he emphasized after attending a congress of Nahdlatul Ulama's youth wing in Jakarta on Friday.

On January 29, the government had announced its plan to distribute direct cash assistance of Rp200 thousand (around US$12) per person to a total of 18.8 million poor people across the country.

Originally, the plan was to distribute the assistance on a monthly basis, from January to March this year. However, the government then decided to hand out the aid simultaneously in February, coinciding with the month of the 2024 General Elections.

Jokowi explained that the change of plan was meant as the government's response to the increases in rice prices at the global level.

"For that reason, we seek to strengthen the people's purchasing power," he noted.

The president also underlined that since September 2023, the government had been distributing social aid in the form of rice and cash to deal with the impacts of El Nino-induced prolonged dry season.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani stated on January 30 that the budget allocated for social aid this year reaches Rp496 trillion (US$31.6 billion), an increase of Rp20 trillion (US$1.2 billion) as compared to that for 2023.

She stressed that the government and DPR had discussed the allocated budget, citing it as an instrument of the country as a whole.

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Translator: Yashinta D, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Arie Novarina
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