Cigarette Workers In Kudus Get Ready To Be Showered By BLT In 2024, Total Budget Prepared IDR 39.44 Billion

A cigarette worker shows money received from the government through a cash direct assistance program (BLT). (ANTARA/Akhmad Nazaruddin Lathif)

KUDUS - Kudus Regency Government, Central Java, ensures that the direct cash assistance program (BLT) for cigarette workers will be continued in 2024 by preparing a budget of IDR 39.44 billion. "The number of recipients certainly refers to the data on cigarette workers who were previously also beneficiaries of the BLT cigarette workers program," said Head of the Social Service, Women's Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control and Family Planning in Kudus Regency, Agustinus Agung Karyanto in Kudus, Antara, Thursday, January 18. With a budget of IDR 39.44 billion sourced from funds for excise and tobacco products (DBHCHT), it is planned that the BLT program will be distributed four times with a BLT value per month of IDR 300 thousand for each beneficiary. The distribution of the Kudus Regency Government is still waiting for synchronization with the Central Java Provincial Government, because previous experience also distributed the same program. "Later on, of course, there will be cigarette workers who will be recorded as BLT recipients whose budget comes from the Central Java Provincial Budget," he said. Based on distribution data at the end of 2023, it was recorded that 65,149 Kudus cigarette workers received direct cash assistance (BLT). Before being distributed to existing data cigarette workers, verification is carried out to ensure whether or not there are workers who die or change professions.

He hopes that with the BLT program, cigarette workers can at least ease the life burden of the recipients, and can become capital to continue to progress, work, and improve family welfare. Meanwhile, the total number of cigarette workers in Kudus Regency reached 77,236 people who worked in a number of cigarette factories in Kudus Regency. However, some workers are residents outside Kudus.