Jokowi Asks The Regional Government To Salurse 2 Percent Regional Budgets To Create Social Assistance

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) asked local governments (Pemda) to participate in providing social assistance (bansos) in the transportation sector for the community.

The social assistance budget is taken from the regional budget (APBD) of 2 percent.

This was conveyed by the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani at a press conference at the Merdeka Palace which was broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube account, Monday, August 29.

Sri Mulyani said the local government (Pemda) was asked to prepare as much as 2 percent of the General Transfer Fund (DTU), namely the General Allocation Fund (DAU) and the Revenue Sharing Fund (DBH) for social assistance, totaling Rp2.17 trillion.

Furthermore, Sri Mulyani said, this budget is for subsidies in the transportation sector.

The targets of this social assistance are public transportation to fishermen and for additional social protection.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs will issue rules, we at the Ministry of Finance also set a regulation of the Minister of Finance where 2 percent of the general transfer funds, namely DAU and DBH are given to the people in the form of transportation subsidies for public transportation to motorcycle taxis and fishermen, as well as for additional social protection," said Sri Mulyani.

Previously, the Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan had also asked local governments (Pemda) to optimize subsidies for food transportation. This is because the transportation and logistics sector is the largest component that affects the high price of food.

Zulhas, as Zulkifli Hasan is familiarly called, said that subsidies for food transportation costs are deemed necessary as a solution to suppress inflation.

"We ask regional heads to pay attention to this. Because the most expensive, the highest the increase is transportation, so regional heads can carry transportation," he said at the Ministry of Trade Building, Jakarta, Wednesday, August 10.

Zulhas said, regional heads can use their respective regional income and expenditure budgets (APBD) as a source of budget to provide subsidies for this food transportation.

However, related to the mechanism, the General Chairperson of PAN handed over to each regional head to formulate it.

"(The funds) have APBD. There are funds like we have reserves," he explained.