"The amount of the direct cash handouts is about Rp25 trillion. When the time comes. it will be distributed among them so there must not be any pause. This means that if (the fuel price) is to be raised in April it will also be given in April," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said here on Friday.
He said the cash handouts would be given to about 30 percent of low-income people who would be affected by the fuel price hike.
The funds needed to compensate the poor for the fuel price hike would be incorporated into the revised 2012 state budget to be deliberated by the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) starting next week, he said.
Social Services Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri meanwhile said the cash handouts would help the poor overcome the impact of the fuel price hike.
"Hopefully, the cash handouts will help them so their life condition will remain the same as before the fuel price is raised," he said.
The fuel price hike is expected to raise commodity prices, which will in the end lower the people`s purchasing power. Under the cash handout program, each family will receive Rp150,000.
Earlier, in 2008, the government also provided Rp300,000 in cash handouts to each family to compensate for fuel price hike. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
