MBG Funds Gerogoti Education Funds, DPR Questions Its Allocation

YOGYAKARTA The Free Nutrition Food program budget has received the spotlight from the public. The reason is, many parties consider MBG funds to be gerogoti for education funds in 2026.

As is known, the government has compiled the 2026 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget Draft (RAPBN). In the RAPBN, the government allocates funds for education amounting to IDR 757.8 trillion. Unfortunately, the portion of MBG funds in the portion of education funds is actually the largest.

Of the total proposed education budget, the funds disbursed for MBG amounted to Rp335 trillion. This figure has increased when compared to the 2025 MBG budget which was only Rp71 trillion before reallocation and addition.

Regarding the large allocation of MBG funds, Member of Commission X DPR RI, Furtasan Ali Yusuf highlighted the large transfer of education budgets to MBG of up to 44 percent. He also questioned whether MBG funds were included in the education category or not.

"In general, we are happy because the education budget posture is in accordance with the constitution. But after being analyzed, about 40 percent more turned out to be allocated to MBG. The question is, is this really in the category of education funds or not?" asked Furtasan in his official statement, Tuesday, August 19.

The NasDem Party faction legislator also assessed that although the MBG program targeted students, further studies needed to be carried out whether MBG funds could be included in the education budget. In the future, Commission X and the government will discuss in more detail the allocation of these funds.

"If the target is clear to the children at school, of course it is still in the education category. But if not, this must be reviewed," said Furtasan.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Adies Kadir, also said the same thing. He emphasized that his agency will supervise the management of the MBG program. In addition, if there are findings, evaluation will also be confirmed.

"We at the DPR will certainly supervise the MBG, both the management that is left to the students, we will supervise. Later, if there are findings, we will conduct an evaluation," said Adies at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta on Tuesday (19/8/2025).

In addition, Adies also said that the DPR requested that the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) evaluate and improve the implementation of the government program. The improvements requested include food distribution which often leads to cases of food poisoning.

"The government is still under construction, yes, later we will also try further evaluation," said Adies.

Previously, the President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) Prabowo Subianto claimed that the Free Nutrition Food (MBG) program had succeeded in improving the nutrition of millions of Indonesian children. He said this at the MPR RI Annual Session and the 2025 DPR-DPD RI Joint Session which was held on Friday, August 15.

"We have implemented strategic interventions to improve nutrition for 82 million Indonesian children and pregnant women," Prabowo said at the DPR Building, Parliament Complex, Jakarta, quoted Wednesday, August 20.

Prabowo also said that good achievements through MBG bis were obtained faster than other countries.

"I have met with the president of Brazil and former president of Brazil. Brazil, it takes 11 years to reach 40 million MBG every day," he said.

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