Obtained A Small Expenditure Budget, Food Agency Asks For Additional IDR 1.2 Trillion

JAKARTA - The National Food Agency (Bapanas) proposed an additional budget of IDR 1.2 trillion to Commission IV of the DPR.

The addition was proposed because this year's budget was much smaller than in previous years.

Head of Badanas Arief Prasetyo Adi assessed that the 2023 Budget ceiling obtained by his party was too small.

Meanwhile, there are a number of programs that require a jumbo-valued budget.

For your information, this year's Bapanas budget ceiling is only IDR 103.5 billion.

This figure is less than 32.5 percent or equivalent to Rp215 billion when compared to the 2022 budget.

"As a budget comparison for the Food Security Agency (Ministry of Agriculture) which is an embryo of the National Food Agency in 2021 amounting to IDR 478.4 billion. And the National Food Agency in 2022 is IDR 318.5 billion," said Arief during a hearing (RDP) with Commission IV, written Wednesday, February 1.

Arief said that the 2023 budget that Bapanas got was not even enough to pay the salaries and work allowances of its employees.

Therefore, if the budget is not corrected, the employee's salary will be paid late.

"My salary is Rp. 10 million, the tukin (performance allowance) is approximately Rp. 30 million and I didn't have a salary of 7 months. I don't need to tell you this but because you asked, I have to answer honestly," he said.

Therefore, Arief assessed that the disbursement of funds provided by the Ministry of Finance was not ideal or less than needed.

Arief said that ideally the budget that must be received this year is IDR 1.2 trillion.

The amount includes the salaries and operations of employees of IDR 71 billion, management and other technical support of IDR 82 billion.

The National Food Agency has also submitted to the Ministry of Finance that there is an additional budget of IDR 1.2 trillion.

"We feel that this condition is not optimal to achieve the 2023 target as we planned in the roadmap. Therefore, with a lace of our hearts we propose an additional expenditure budget of more than IDR 1.2 trillion to ideally run our program," he said.