DPR Members Say Gotong Royong Is Indonesia's Main Capital To Control Inflation

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission XI of the House of Representatives (DPR) Andreas Eddy Susetyo said mutual cooperation is Indonesia's main social capital in controlling inflation, if we learn from the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Learning from handling the pandemic, it turns out that we can succeed because we have two weapons, namely social capital in the form of mutual cooperation and the use of digital technology or digitization," Andreas said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, August 10.

Therefore, he continued, mutual cooperation in controlling inflation can be carried out starting from households, then moved to local governments, then synergized and coordinated with the central government.

From the household, he gave an example that the community can play a role in controlling inflation, starting from planting chilies or onions in their yards to reduce pressure on demand for these commodities, so that in the future they will lower prices.

Meanwhile for local governments, market operations must continue to be carried out in collaboration between regions and the central government to maintain supply availability and smooth distribution.

Andreas explained that the central government itself has actually allocated a Special Allocation Fund (DAK) in this year's State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) for food security which is distributed to local governments.

"Hopefully these funds and mechanisms can be used to help regions intervene," he said.

On the other hand, he revealed, the government and the DPR have also agreed on subsidies and energy compensation of up to Rp520 trillion this year to control price inflation regulated by the government, aka administered prices.

This is certainly not an easy challenge because the function of the State Budget in fiscal policy has indeed been agreed to as a shock absorber or shock absorber to withstand shocks.

However, a credible and sustainable APBN must also be considered.