Ma'ruf Amin: Meetings And Travel Of The Service Don't Sug The Poverty Budget

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin reminded that the use of the poverty alleviation program budget should not run out for comparative studies, official trips and meetings.

"The appeal of the Minister of PAN-RB (which says) is too big for a budget that is travel costs, comparative study costs, so that it absorbs (the poverty alleviation budget) I think it is natural and we really don't let it get too here (the official travel budget), but it is right on target," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin at the Yogyakarta Presidential Palace, Saturday.

Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (PAN-RB) Abdullah Azwar Anas on January 27, 2023, said that the poverty alleviation budget of IDR 500 trillion was spent on meetings and comparative studies at hotels.

"There are two poverty reductions, one is social protection so that it doesn't go any further down, they can survive. The second is empowerment so that they can no longer be poor. The two things are indeed big and spread in various ministries," said the Vice President.

However, the poverty alleviation budget also includes program coordination and budget convergence.

"This budget should not let each of them carry out its own but there is convergence so that the budget is effective," said the Vice President.

Moreover, the government has a target to reduce the extreme poverty rate by 2024 to zero percent.

"Because the budget is already quite large, the performance that (must) be more effective is probably the one that needs to be addressed," added the Vice President.

The vice president as the head of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) revealed that the government still wants various ways to take effective and breakthrough steps and make priority targets where the poverty rate is still high.

"We have 12 provinces that are targeted because we still want 2024 (extreme poverty) to be zero percent. This means that we still want it. That the pandemic is indeed hampered, so it is indeed heavier but we will continue to boost this time," said the Vice President.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the percentage of poor people in September 2022 was 9.57 percent, an increase of 0.03 percentage points compared to March 2022 and a decrease of 0.14 percentage points compared to September 2021.

The number of poor people in September 2022 was 26.36 million people, an increase of 0.20 million people compared to March 2022 and a decrease of 0.14 million people compared to September 2021.

The poverty line in September 2022 was recorded at IDR 535,547.00/capita/month. With calculations in September 2022, on average, poor households in Indonesia have 4.34 household members, the average poverty line per poor household is IDR 2,324,274.00/poor household/month.

The government targets the extreme poverty rate in the country to reach zero percent by 2024. In 2023-2024, the government will focus on poverty alleviation in 514 priority districts/cities and extreme poverty levels at 2.3 to 3 percent.