Good News For Ojol's Brother, Ojek Cair Social Assistance October 2022

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Finance emphasized that social assistance (bansos) for the transportation sector for motorcycle taxi drivers and public transport drivers will be disbursed in October 2022.

Deputy Minister of Finance (Wamenkeu) Suahasil said that for the September period the budget and distribution design were being finalized by the regional government (Pemda). The reason is, the allocation of the transportation sector social assistance budget is taken from the central public transfer fund (DTU) to the regions, namely the general allocation fund (DAU) or the profit-sharing fund (DBH).

The distribution of this DTU (from the center to the regions) is in October, November and December. For this reason, September is the right time for local governments to design budgets and programs. So that October can start being distributed and hope that inflation and prices of goods and services will not increase too fast," he said during an online meeting with the ministers and heads of related institutions, Monday, September 5.

Suahasil explained that the total budget that must be issued by all local governments is about 2 percent of the DTU with a total estimate of Rp2.17 trillion.

The Deputy Sri Mulyani also explained that the social assistance for motorcycle taxi drivers could be in the form of cash. Meanwhile, for angkot drivers, it can be in the form of transportation tariff subsidies as well as relief from motor vehicle tax payments (PKB).

However, Suahasil did not specify the value of the benefits to be received considering that the program design and distribution in the field were fully designed by the local government.

"It can be with existing programs that are already running or new programs, that's all okay," he said.

Furthermore, he explained that this social assistance is not only targeting the transportation sector but also for MSME actors, fishermen and job creation.

For the creation of job opportunities, local governments can hold labor-intensive programs that involve the community, such as improving public facilities in the market or drainage. Then it can also improve the environment and residences of the poor," he said.