Ideas Of Free Rice Cooker Distribution For Poor Households Don't Make Sense

The idea of giving free rice cookers to the poor and vulnerable to poverty has drawn a lot of criticism. (Freepic)

JAKARTA One more government policy that sparked controversy. The provision of electrical-based cooking utensils (AML), in this case, is a rice cooker, for the lower middle class.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) said it would distribute 500,000 AML or rice cooker units for free and that was important to do.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif said, the use of rice cookers in the community has the potential to help the state in reducing LPG imports, which every year burden state finances. Another reason is to solve the problem of over supply of electricity PLN which is said to be the main goal of providing assistance.

For information, data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources states that the provision of 500,000 rice cookers has the potential to increase electricity consumption by around 140 gigawatt hour (GWh) equivalent to the generating capacity of 20 Megawatts. Meanwhile, PLN is estimated to have an excess of electrical power of up to 7.4 GW or 7,400 MW this year.

The provision of rice cookers by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is contained in the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No.11 of 2023 concerning the Provision of Electricity-Based Cooking Equipment for Households.

This regulation was stipulated by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif on September 26, 2023 and took effect on the date of promulgation, October 2, 2023.

Although there is no specific mention of this rule regarding the provision ofrice cookers, what is certain is in Article 1 of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources No.11 of 2023 it is stated that "Electric Cooking Tools called AML are the utilizers of electricity for cooking that function to feed rice, warm food, and wash food."

Programrice cookergratis ini akan ditargetkan pada pelanggan PLN atau PLN Batam berkua 450 VA, 900 VA, dan 1,300 VA yang berkomisi di daerah tersedia listrik 24 jam alam. Syarat lainnya bagi penerima bantuan adalah rumah tangga tersebut tidak memiliki AML.

The government's idea through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to provide this rice cookergratis is in the spotlight, including from public policy observer Trubus Rahadiasyah. He questioned the government's urgency to provide free rice cookers to the public.

According to him, the government has implemented a strange policy. Instead of providing free AML, Trubus assessed that the government should provide a more appropriate subsidy, which the community really needs.

"This is a strange policy, inappropriate policy. What is the urgency so that the government provides free rice cooker?" Trubus said when contacted by VOI.

"Currently, the price of meras is getting more and more expensive, increasingly unaffordable. What people need the most is cheap rice, as well as cheap food. Our society should be subsidized at affordable food prices," he added.

He also considered this as a way for the government to 'force' its people to increase their power of electricity, especially for houses with a subsidized 450 Watt power.

"It's not impossible that this is the government's way of increasing the power of electricity, or even removing 450 watts of electricity. Because this subsidy is considered heavy," he explained.

A similar criticism was also made by the Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira. He did not see that the distribution of free rice cookers for the poor and vulnerable to poverty was the answer to two problems raised by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

This is a program that doesn't make sense. The target of this AML distribution is poor households and vulnerable to poverty. The question is what will be cooked with a rice cookergratis if the rice is expensive?' Bhima told VOI.

"This AML aid is a waste of budget. The problem faced is the rice crisis, but instead it is given an electrical cooking tool," he said.

Bhima added, with this policy discourse, the government seems to want to solve the problem of oversupply electricity in an inappropriate and significant way.

"If the context is to absorb excess electricity supply, especially in Java and Bali, then the solution is early closing of coal power plants, not by helping to encourage the transition of electrical cooking utensils," Bhima added.

Bhima also emphasized that the provision of AML for free was in the end only burdensome for the poor. Because, they have to prepare funds for maintenance costs if at any time the tool is damaged.

Instead of trying to replace the 3 kg LPG gas subsidy by providing free AML to the poor and vulnerable to poverty, Bhima encouraged the government to tighten the 3 kg LPG gas subsidy which is still used by the upper middle class.

"So actually this does not solve any problems, in terms of energy transition it is also not appropriate because juriru adds to the burden of new expenses for poor households, even though it was initially given free of charge. From the start this was a ridiculous policy," said Bhima again.

"So there are many policies that should be resolved upstream but now the government is solving small downstream problems," he said.

Another thing that is in the spotlight is regarding the budget provided by the government to perpetuate this free rice cook-sharing program.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) Yustinus Prastowo said the government had prepared IDR 347.5 billion for the distribution of free rice cookers targeting 500,000 households in Indonesia.

"The budget prepared for the program to increase public electricity consumption through AML is IDR 347.5 billion for 500,000 households," he said.

With this budget, it means that the price of one unitrice cooker that the government will distribute is IDR 695,000. The price is quite expensive for one unit ofrice cookersandar.

Moreover, said the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif, the free rice cooker distributed by the government is expected to come from domestic producers, for example, is the production of PT Maspion.

According to observations, the price of Maspion's cookerk with the standard type in e-commerce is priced at the cheapest at IDR 219,640 to the most expensive for IDR 393,300. Meanwhile, the required electricity consumption is at least 300 watts.