The BLT Dilemma: Short But Long Term Solution

JAKARTA – The phenomenon of Direct Cash Assistance or what is called BLT is now emerging again, along with the increase in cooking oil prices in Indonesia. The government decided to give up on giving lump sums to the community, rather than bothering to regulate the behavior of the palm oil industry tycoons who monopolize the upstream and downstream processes of cooking oil.

President Jokowi announced the BLT for cooking oil program on April 1.

“We know that cooking oil prices have risen quite high as a result of the surge in palm oil prices in the international market. To ease the burden on the community, the government will provide cooking oil BLT. The assistance will be given to 20.5 million families who are included in the Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) and Family Hope Program (PKH) lists, as well as 2.5 million street vendors who sell fried food," said President Jokowi in an announcement broadcast via email. Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel.

"As for the assistance given, IDR 100.000 per month. The government will provide the assistance for three months at a time, namely April, May, and June which will be paid in advance in April 2022 in the amount of IDR 300 thousand. Lastly, I ask the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the TNI, and the National Police to coordinate so that the distribution of this aid will run well and smoothly," Jokowi continued.

And as usual, Jokowi immediately took action. During a visit to Jambi on Thursday 7 April, Jokowi visited the Angso Duo Market. There, Jokowi provided assistance to 200 traders, each IDR 1.2 million for capital.

The BLT for cooking oil was also given to 100 beneficiaries of the Family Hope Program (PKH), IDR 300.000 each, as promised during the announcement on April 1.

This money-sharing action will continue, perhaps until June because there are 20.5 million families registered in PKH and 2.5 million traders to take care of. This is the amount as programmed for this year's cooking oil BLT, with a budget allocation of IDR 6.15 trillion taken from the Social Assistance Fund.

300 thousand rupiahs is considered enough to buy cooking oil for three months, with bulk oil class. However, it is clear that BLT has not resolved the controversy over the scarcity of cooking oil and the skyrocketing price. BLT only solves problems at the end-user level, even if only temporarily.

Import from Brazil

When it was first initiated in Brazil under the leadership of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2003, the BLT, which was given the name Bolsa Familia (Family Allowance) was indeed a short-term program. The program was hailed as “an anti-poverty scheme created in Latin America and a role model around the world”.

The popularity of Bolsa Familia in the eyes of Brazil's poor, made this program continue to be rolled out until President Lula da Silva ended his term of office in 2011. So this short-term program was run by Lula da Silva for eight years.

Brazilian presidents after Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer are also still running the Bolsa Familia program. The current President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro replaces Bolsa Familia with Auxillio Brasil (Help Brazil) on 30 December 2021.

Different name, same concept. Bolsonaro only added the amount of money, from the original maximum of 182 rials (around IDR 550 thousand) to 400 rials (about IDR 1.2 million) per month.

Contagious Outside

Considered good, the Bolsa Familia concept was adopted by many countries. The World Bank also provides loans, through a program called the Project Family Grant. This program is then popular in third-world countries.

One of the first countries outside of Brazil to implement Bolsa Familia was, of course, Indonesia. During the first term of the administration of President Susilo Bambang Ydhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla in 2004, the Bolsa Familia program was brought to Indonesia and was given the name Cash Direct Assistance. That is the history of BLT in Indonesia.

The SBY government continues to implement the BLT program. This program has become a mainstay to overcome the economic problems of the lower middle class in Indonesia. During the 2004-2014 SBY administration, BLT was practiced three times, namely: 2005, 2008, and 2013.

President Jokowi also implemented this program, although it was originally called the Family Hope Program (PKH), but the spirit is the same. In 2018 the Jokowi government provided a total of IDR 1.89 million to the poor which could be withdrawn in four disbursements.

Now BLT is back. The funny thing is, since it was first introduced by SBY-JK in 2005 until it was put into practice by Jokowi in 2022, data on recipients and the amount of BLT have never moved far. Recipients ranged from 20 million individuals, and the figure did not shift from IDR 300-400 thousand.