Donate Cigarette Filter Machine, Ganjar Hopes Small Industries To Improve Their Business Quality

Ganjar Pranowo (Photo via Central Java Provincial Government)

JAKARTA - The atmosphere in the tobacco products industry immediately became lively when the Governor of Central Java, Ganjar Pranowo, came to greet the rollers at the Rajan Nabadi cigarette factory, Kudus.

The cigarette workers, mostly women, were excited and scrambled to steal Ganjar's attention.

"Hey, Mr. Ganjar, here, sir. Walah Mr. Ganjar ki irunge sharp, padha karo ning TV (Mr. Ganjar has a sharp nose like on TV)", said a mother while taking a picture.

"What are you doing? How many rolls can you get a day?” asked Ganjar, to one of the rolling workers.

Sumiah (56), admitted that she had been a hand-rolled worker for the cigarette factory for five years. In a day, Sumiah can roll up to 5,000 clove cigarettes.

"Yes, it's been five years. Every day we roll 5,000 (stems)", said Sumiah.

Ganjar, who was accompanied by PR owner Rajan Nabadi, Sutrisno, asked about the welfare of the workers working in his factory. According to Sutrisno, workers are registered with BPJS Ketenagakerjaan and are covered by him.

“We can compete to serve consumers who smoke filters, we can also increase state treasury deposits. because our turnover adds the filter", said Sutrisno.

For information, the Tobacco Excise Revenue Sharing Fund (DBHCHT) in Central Java was recorded at a total of IDR 879.96 billion. In Kudus itself, the DBHCHT was recorded at IDR 174.2 billion.

The use of DBHCHT this year refers to the Regulation of the Minister of Finance (PMK) No. 215/PMK.07/the Year 2021, with the percentage of DBHCHT usage in article 11. This rule replaces the previous rule.

According to the regulations, 50 percent of the DBHCHT is intended for the community welfare sector, 10 percent for law enforcement, and 40 percent for the health sector.

Then 50 percent of the community welfare sector is divided into 20 percent for programs to improve the quality of raw materials, industrial development, and social environment development for work skills improvement activities. While the other 30 percent is for the social environment development program in the provision of assistance.

Governor Ganjar Pranowo said that his visit was to ensure conditions and check that the reception of the etiquette machine was right on target. Ganjar said that the assistance was expected to be beneficial and quickly reach the recipients, especially small business actors.

“This is a business that we must foster, and hopefully it can improve its business, scale of business, and then the quality of its business. So they can increase the scale of their business", said Ganjar in an official statement from the Central Java Provincial Government, Friday, June 10.

Ganjar conveyed that the support for direct cash assistance (BLT) for cigarette workers from the provincial government would soon be provided. Currently, the data synchronization stage is still being carried out.

"If the data is appropriate, everything can be clarified to the factory, so we just have to deliver it", he said.