It is likely the funds will be disbursed in February or March 2011Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government will soon disburse budget funds to speed up the attainment of food stability and the implementation of social protection program, a minister said.
"The government will make an effort to disburse the budget funds soon," Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Agung Laksono said here on Friday.
The decision to disburse the budget funds was made at a coordination meeting of ministers under the coordination of the Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare and the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs on Thursday night, he said.
During the meeting the ministers also agreed to ask the Finance Ministry to assist the disbursement of the budget funds without neglecting the existing procedure, he said.
"It is likely the funds will be disbursed in February or March 2011," he said.
Agung said the move to speed up the attainment of food stability and the implementation of social protection program was necessary due to the higher prices of several basic necessities.
"The meeting was called to anticipate and minimize the impact of situation upheavals on low-income people," he said.
One of the decisions reached at the meeting was increasing the amount of subsidized rice for the poor, he said.
The government has set the ceiling quantity of subsidized rice for the poor this year at 3,147,841,260 kg to be earmarked for 17,488,007 families in the country`s 33 provinces.
Last year the amount of subsidized rice for the poor reached 98.52 percent of the target.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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