Jokowi Distributes IDR 600 Thousand BLT Ahead Of The General Election, Anies Baswedan Is Worried About Asking Sri Mulyani To Supervise Budget

Presidential Candidate Anies Baswedan (DOK TIMNAS AMIN)

Presidential candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan, admitted that he was surprised by President Joko Widodo's decision to distribute direct cash assistance (BLT) which was run in advance in February, ahead of the voting day for the 2024 General Election. Worried about the politicization of social assistance (bansos), Anies asked Finance Minister Sri Mulyani to supervise the use of the budget so that politicization does not occur. "In the end, if the budget leaves the Ministry of Finance. We really hope that the Minister of Finance can become a guard at the time of this politicization," said Anies in Brebes, Central Java, Tuesday, January 30. Anies admitted that he still trusted Sri Mulyani to keep the budget allocation from being misused. Given that Sri Mulyani is one of Jokowi's ministers with a professional background, not a political party cadre, and does not express support for one of the presidential and vice presidential pairs. "Minister A, minister B, minister C, was even busy participating in the campaign, there was a message from the president that he could participate in the campaign, we hope that the Minister of Finance will become a pillar of integrity guards, pillars of technocratic guards who keep away the trivial politicization practices, occurring in this republic," explained Anies. For information, President Joko Widodo decided to provide BLT for the community to mitigate food risk of IDR 11.25 trillion for 18.8 million beneficiary families (KPM).

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said BLT was distributed for the first three months in 2024, and this food BLT was given as an effort to mitigate food risks. "Direct cash assistance for food risk mitigation for 3 months and it will be evaluated for another three months and the first three months will be given around February, which is IDR 200,000 per month," said Airlangga.