Vice President: BLT BBM To Prevent Extreme Poverty

PALEMBANG - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said that the provision of direct cash assistance for the transfer of fuel oil subsidies (BLT BBM) to the poor was the government's way of preventing extreme poverty from escalating.

The vice president said the government has remained focused on achieving the zero percent target for extreme poverty in 2024, after reaching 4 percent in 2021 based on data from the Central Statistics Agency.

"The government's policy in the form of increasing fuel prices, the public must understand as a way to reorganize the provision of subsidies," said Ma'ruf after inaugurating the Regional Management of the Sharia Economic Community and the Regional Committee for Sharia Economics and Finance (KDEKS) as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, September 7.

So far, the distribution of fuel subsidies is considered not right on target or actually obtained by residents who should not receive it.

“Giving rights to people who are entitled, this is what the government is doing. So far, the subsidy has not reached the right, so the government has decided to take it and replace it with social assistance," he said.

The vice president did not deny that the policy had an impact on price increases for a number of important basic necessities. However, Ma'ruf guarantees that this is only temporary because it is not actually a price increase but an adjustment or normalization of the economic price of goods and services.

He explained that the government had to take a policy of increasing fuel prices because Indonesia also received the impact of the energy crisis that hit the world.

However, whether the effect will be significant for the national extreme poverty rate, according to the Vice President, it must be proven based on an analysis conducted by BPS.

In principle, the government continues to oversee this process so that the negative impact is not too large for the economic life of the community.

Regarding demonstrations in a number of areas against the increase in fuel prices, for Ma'ruf it would not be a problem as long as the demonstration was not carried out in an anarchic manner.

As a democratic country, every citizen is given the freedom to express opinions as long as it does not cause chaos and noise, and must comply with the applicable laws, he said.

Previously, the government through the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) began distributing Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) of IDR 600,000 per family as a cushion for the increase in the price of Pertalite and Solar fuel oil (BBM).

Assistance will be provided for four months, September to December 2022, each at IDR150 thousand per month. However, the distribution mechanism is divided into two stages.

The first stage of this September is IDR 300 thousand, followed by the second stage in December, worth another IDR 300 thousand. So that the total assistance per KPM is IDR 600 thousand.