No more social assistance would be distributed as charity as that could be categorized as unproductive spending.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has said he would reallocate social aid budgets that did not have clear targets.
"I will focus on dealing with social expenditures that have not been targeted well so far. We will reallocate them to proper programs and recipients," he stated at the Kompas 100 CEO Forum here on Friday.
He noted that no more social assistance would be distributed as charity as that could be categorized as unproductive spending.
"No social assistance will be allowed to be given as charity. The program must be clear. Cash transfer may only be done with conditions," he stressed.
Citing Brazil as an example, the minister observed that when that countrys economy grew quite high, it managed to reduce its Gini Ratio (measure of income inequality) from 0.4 to 0.3.
"Brazil successfully made it because it strictly practiced a conditional cash transfer system. Cash transfer remains important, but it must be done with conditions. Cash transfer without conditions can lead to consumptive instead of productive utilizations," Brodjonegoro explained.
According to him, efficient budget utilization could help create fiscal room for financing the new governments priority projects.
"So, efficiency will help create a bigger room for realizing programs the President has pledged," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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