The Government Plans To Increase The 2024 PKH And Basic Food Assistance Index

Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance, Febrio Nathan Kacaribu, gave an explanation at the 2024 Fiscal Economic and Policy Direction event in Jakarta, Wednesday (30/5/2023). (ANTARA/Imatul Silfia)

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Finance plans to increase the assistance index for the Family Hope Program (PKH) and basic necessities in 2024.

This step aims to realize the government's target of reducing extreme poverty to zero percent next year.

"The government is considering increasing the index of PKH and basic necessities," said Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance Febrio Nathan Kacaribu at the 2024 Fiscal Economic and Policy Direction event in Jakarta as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, May 31.

Febrio explained that the plan arose based on the consideration of the PKH and basic necessities that had not been improved in recent years.

Even so, continued Febrio, the plan will be discussed with the House of Representatives (DPR) first.

The Head of BKF explained that the government has prepared various strategies, in addition to increasing the PKH and basic food indexes, to eradicate extreme poverty by 2024.

This strategy was prepared because of the need for extra effort to be able to eliminate extreme poverty.

The first strategy prepared by the government is to reduce the burden on poor and vulnerable households. In this case, the government focuses on the PKH and basic necessities index, optimizing village Direct Cash Assistance (BLT), and improving the accuracy of the target of Desil 1.

Based on Febrio's presentation, the target of Desil 1 covers 27.4 million people.

The second strategy is to increase poor and vulnerable household income. This is realized through the addition of labor-intensive projects in each ministry and institution as well as optimizing the Dense of Village Cash Works (PKTD).

the final strategy is to increase access to basic infrastructure, such as sanitation, drinking water, and health centers (public health centers).

Based on data from Febrio's explanation, the extreme poverty rate in Indonesia has continued to decline in recent years. It was recorded that the extreme poverty rate in 2020 was 2.25 percent, then decreased to 2.16 percent in 2021 and 2.04 percent in 2022. The extreme poverty line in 2022 was IDR 348,990 per capita/month.