BOTI 2021 Funds For Houses Of Worship In Jakarta IDR 140 Billion, An Increase Compared To Last Year's IDR 67,404 Billion

Ilusttasi - Muslims perform prayers after spraying disinfectants at Al Azhar Mosque, South Jakarta (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The grant for the Operational Assistance for Places of Worship (BOTI) for 2021 for houses of worship in Jakarta from various religions is set at IDR 140,520 billion.

Head of the DKI Jakarta Regional Secretariat's Education and Mental Spiritual Bureau Muhammad Zen, in Jakarta, Saturday, explained that the BOTI grant of IDR 140.520 billion in 2021 will be distributed to 3,200 mosques, 2,000 prayer rooms, 1,379 churches, 263 monasteries as well as 19 temples, and shrines.

"The amount of BOTI grants for large places of worship such as mosques, churches, and temples are IDR 2 million per month. Meanwhile, for medium-sized places of worship such as prayer rooms, it is IDR 1 million per month", he said.

"Also, there is an incentive fund for administrators/caretakers of places of worship, such as Marbots (mosque guards), mosque/prayer room leaders, church administrators, and temples of IDR 500 thousand per month. BOTI grants and incentives are given for 12 months", he said.

This figure, said Zen, has increased since the program began in 2019, with a BOTI grant budget of IDR 87.552 billion given to 3,148 mosques and 1,000 prayer rooms.

Then in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of grant funds has been rationalized. Places of worship such as mosques, churches, monasteries, temples, and shrines receive IDR 1 million per month, while prayer rooms from Rp1 million to Rp500 thousand per month. Thus, the BOTI 2020 proposal, which was originally IDR 134.808 billion, becomes IDR 67.404 billion.

BOTI 2020 was given to 3,200 mosques, 2,000 prayer rooms, 1,379 churches, 19 temples, as well as 19 temples, and shrines.

"The number of places of worship given in 2021 is still the same as in 2020, but the amount of grant funds is back to its original value, which is IDR 2 million per month for places of worship such as mosques and prayer rooms of IDR 1 million per month", he said.

However, he emphasized that the 2019 and 2020 BOTI programs were running well, by the principles of decency and rationality and bringing benefits to the community. The place of worship for the recipient of the grant determined by the religious institution/coordinator has also met the requirements stipulated as a grantee.

The requirements for recipients of these grants are by the mandate of Ministry of Home Affairs Regulation (Permendagri) Number 32 of 2011 concerning Guidelines for Providing Grants and Social Assistance Sourced from the Regional Budget as last amended by Permendagri Number 123 of 2018, and Governor Regulation Number 142 of 2018 concerning Guidelines for Grants and Social Assistance Sourced APBD as last amended with Governor Regulation Number 20 of 2020.

"BOTI is a priority program of the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government. To ensure transparency, this assistance is provided by transfer. Therefore, the DKI Provincial Government is collaborating with DKI Bank and DKI Syariah Bank to channel funds", he also said.

Optimization

The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government, he said, continues to optimize the funds for the Operational Assistance for Places of Worship (BOTI) starting in 2019 with a fair commission to increase the benefits of places of worship of various religions.

BOTI was motivated by the results of visits to various places of worship carried out by Governor Anies Baswedan in 2018 which resulted in the finding that there were still quite a several places of worship that needed assistance so that it would be more beneficial to the surrounding environment.

"Starting from the direction of the late The regional Secretariat Sir Saefullah on the orders of the Governor at that time. In the villages, there are still many places of worship that have not received attention from the government. With the existence of BOTI, it is hoped that it can help. To pay for electricity and so on. The Governor wants assistance. this is comprehensive, the point is how can the government be present", he said again.

Before BOTI, there was the assistance that had just been given to dozens of mosques and several churches, while for temples and temples they had not received assistance.

The presence of the BOTI program, which has been effective since 2019, began with assisting mosques and prayer rooms through grant proposers, namely the DKI Jakarta Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI).

The Christian Church at that time had not received assistance, because it had not yet been agreed upon by a distribution coordinator such as DMI DKI Jakarta. Only in 2020 will places of worship of all religions receive assistance.

The religious institutions as coordinators are DMI for the distribution of BOTI Islam to mosques or prayer rooms, the Association of Indonesian Pentecostal Churches (PGPI) DKI Jakarta for Christian BOTIs to churches.

Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI) DKI Jakarta for Hindu BOTI to temples, and DKI Jakarta Indonesian Buddhist Council (MBI) for BOTI Buddha to temples.