Government Guyur Rp3 Trillion For 40 Regional Governments Deemed Successfully Maintain Inflation

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA - The government through the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance at the Ministry of Finance will provide incentives of Rp. 3 trillion to 40 local governments (Pemda) which are considered successful in controlling inflation in their respective regions.

Director General of Fiscal Balance Astera Primanto Bhakti said this policy is one of the steps taken by the central government in the form of distributing regional incentive funds (DID).

In detail, he mentioned that there are at least 10 provinces, 15 cities and 15 districts that have succeeded in maintaining the inflation level in accordance with the reference for the Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) Number 140 of 2022.

"This IDR 3 trillion DID budget will soon be distributed with IDR 1.5 trillion distributed this September," he said when giving a presentation to the media crew on Tuesday, September 20.

Astera added that incentives will also be received by local governments that have succeeded in carrying out several priority programs, such as the use of domestic products, pandemic control, reduction in stunting, vaccination, to poverty and unemployment.

"For those of us who are in inflation, in particular we (the central government) provide separate incentives," he said.

Meanwhile, the reference for the inflation rate used is the May-August 2022 period per province and per district/city.

"The second phase of DID will be disbursed in October 2022," he said.

As is known, directives to maintain the amount of inflation were delivered directly by President Joko Widodo some time which mandated that the level should not exceed 5 percent year on year (yoy).

The government itself in the 2022 State Budget Law has set an inflation target for this year to be 3 percent plus minus 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the highest inflation rate in 2022 occurred last July with a record 4.94 percent yoy. That figure is the highest since October 2015 with 6.25 percent. The inflation rate then slightly slowed down in August 2022 which was 4.69 percent yoy.