BLT Dana Desa Cair, Mendes PDTT Asks Regional Heads To Facilitate Distribution

Minister of Villages, Disadvantaged Areas and Transmigration, Abdul Halim Iskandar. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Areas and Transmigration (Kemendesa PDTT) ensures that to date, the disbursement of direct cash assistance (BLT) has reached 8,157 villages in 76 districts throughout Indonesia.

BLT Village Fund is assistance taken from village funds for residents who are classified as underprivileged and affected by the corona virus or COVID-19, either directly or indirectly.

The PDTT Village Minister, Abdul Hakim said, the Village Fund BLT distribution was carried out by the village government using two non-cash and cash methods.

"Well, out of the 8,157 villages, an average of around Rp. 70 billion disbursed is still a mixture of accumulation but from each village," he said, in a virtual press conference, in Jakarta, Monday, April 27.

Abdul Hakim explained that the non-cash BLT distribution would be carried out by bank transfer to every poor citizen. Meanwhile, villages that do not have a bank or are far from a bank branch office, if very, very forced, only use the cash option.

"Those who are non-cash obviously don't have a meeting, almost all cash is given in the form of door to door delivery to the beneficiaries' homes, because everyone still observes health protocols," he said.

Regarding the Village Fund BLT, Abdul Halim Iskandar asked all regional heads, namely regents or mayors, to facilitate their distribution.

"Because this is a humanitarian affair, so I hope to put humanitarian affairs above everything else. I beg the regents or mayors so that there are no efforts to make or complicate humanitarian affairs," he said.

Abdul Hakim said, in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is very important for regional heads to facilitate the distribution of Village Fund BLT to village heads and village communities who desperately need this assistance.

"Alhamdulillah, until today we have not received any information related to efforts to hinder the distribution of village funds in BLT," he said.

For your information, registration for Village Fund BLT must be done through Village Volunteers Against COVID-19 with focused data collection at the RT, RW and village levels. Then, the data that has been collected must be verified by a village meeting which is then signed by the village head.

The next stage, the verified documents are then reported to the district head via the sub-district head and the implementation of the Village Fund BLT program can be carried out no later than five working days per the date it is received by the sub-district.

Village Fund BLT recipients will receive assistance of Rp. 600 thousand per month, for three consecutive months. So that the total that will be given for three months is IDR 1.8 million. Meanwhile, the total village funds that have been converted into direct cash assistance have reached IDR 24.47 trillion or around 30 percent of the total village fund budget that has been allocated by the government in the 2020 State Budget of IDR 72 trillion.

The Village Fund BLT amounting to Rp.24.47 trillion will later be given to 12.48 million beneficiary poor families. As for the BLT Village Fund distribution scheme, first, for villages that receive Village Funds of Rp. 800 million, the maximum BLT allocation is 25 percent of the total Village Funds.

Second, the Village Fund BLT distribution mechanism, which received an amount of Rp. 800 million to Rp. 1.2 billion, could allocate a maximum of 30 percent of BLT.

Third, villages that receive Village Funds of Rp. 1.2 billion or more will allocate BLT at a maximum of 35 percent.

Meanwhile, villages that have a larger number of poor families than the received budget can apply for additional funds after being approved by the Regency / City Government.