6 Weeks Emergency PPKM Scenario, Economist: Cash Social Assistance Should Be Rp2 Million Per Month, Not Rp300 Thousand

JAKARTA - The government is reported to have made a scenario for the implementation of the Emergency Community Activity Restriction (PPKM) for up to 6 weeks. Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira said if the scenario was implemented, then cash social assistance (bansos) from the government to the community must be increased.

Bhima said the worst condition from the extension of the Emergency PPKM was that companies filing for bankruptcy would increase sharply. Sectors such as retail, hotels, restaurants, and transportation which are sensitive to the decline in mobility will continue to contract until the third quarter of this year.

Furthermore, Bhima said the government must also anticipate a wave of layoffs or layoffs as a result of the extension of the Emergency PPKM to 6 weeks.

"The government must anticipate layoffs through an adequate social protection budget, including wage subsidy assistance in the amount of Rp5 million per recipient for three months and cash assistance. The question of cash assistance is not enough, only Rp300 thousand per month, it should be at least Rp1.5-Rp2 million per month for beneficiary families," he said when contacted by VOI, Tuesday, July 13.

Bhima said that initially, people had started shopping confidently from the beginning of the year until the moment of Eid or Lebaran 2021. But consumer optimism fell again with the existence of Emergency PPKM. In fact, said Bhima, companies that previously wanted to expand their business plans were disbanded.

"So there are costs or costs of uncertainty. Actually, the costs due to this uncertainty can be reduced as long as the government can immediately reduce the daily cases of COVID-19 to below 5,000 (per day)," he said.

According to Bhima, business actors will help the government to control the COVID-19 pandemic because the economy will not run if the pandemic is not under control. However, he said, there must be a clear target for the steps taken by the government to convince business actors.

"Businessmen and the community are willing to make sacrifices, but the target for controlling COVID-19 must also be clear," he explained.

For your information, COVID-19 cases in the country have continued to increase in recent times. Based on data from the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) the latest positive cases of COVID-19 increased by 47,899 on Tuesday, July 13.

The addition of cases is the highest on record since it was first announced on March 2. Meanwhile, the total cumulative cases amounted to 2,615,529.

Meanwhile, the number of recovered cases increased by 20,123 today, bringing the total to 2,139,601 recovered. Meanwhile, the positive confirmed cases who died increased by 869 people and a total of 68,219 people.

Meanwhile, the province with the newest cases is DKI Jakarta with 12,182 new cases and a total of 689,243 cases. DKI is the province with the most COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. Followed by West Java province with 7,192 cases and the total cumulative cases reached 467,141.