"The government should focus on the recipient targets and should provide the compensation directly to them," Ali Nasrun of the University of Tanjungpura said here on Monday.
He said that the increase of subsidized fuel oil price prices would surely affect the people. "Compensation must be prepared carefully," he said. However, he suggested that the compensation should not be provided like the direct cash assistance (BLT) several years ago.
The government plans to allocate Rp25 trillion in funds for a provisional direct cash handout program (BLSM) to compensate the poor for the imminent increase in the price of subsidized fuels.
"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 last week.
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. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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