Jokowi Asks Regional Heads To Use Unexpected Budgets To Suppress Inflation

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) asked regional heads to use unexpected budget items in their respective regional revenue and expenditure budgets (APBD) for various policies to reduce inflation in their regions.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta admitted that he had ordered the Minister of Home Affairs, Tito Karnavian, to issue regulations regarding this matter.

"I have ordered the Minister of Home Affairs to issue decrees, circulars stating that unexpected budgets can be used to resolve inflation in the regions," he said at the opening of the 2022 National Coordination Meeting for Inflation Control, broadcast from the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube. , Thursday, August 18th.

The consideration of using the unexpected budget for policy needs to contain the inflation rate emerged after Jokowi made a working visit to Merauke, South Papua Province.

When visiting Merauke, Jokowi admitted that the head of the local area complained that in his area there was an abundant stock of rice at a low price in the range of Rp. 6,000 per kg, but no one absorbed the rice.

Meanwhile, other areas experiencing rice shortages did not take stock to the area because of transportation costs.

"I checked below, it's true that the price is Rp. 6,000 and there are other areas that lack rice. Why not take it from Merauke which is still cheap? The problem is that transportation is expensive. should be used to cover transportation costs for existing goods, use them," he said.

Jokowi assessed that the unexpected budget could be one of the steps to connect the need and availability of supply in order to suppress the inflation rate due to the hand group considering that Indonesia is a large and large country.

Therefore, Jokowi asked all regional heads both at the provincial and district levels to be willing to cooperate with the regional inflation control team (TPID) and the central inflation control team (TPIP).

Jokowi emphasized that the inflation control team at the center must be able to map while connecting the needs and supply of these food groups in the regions.

"This field work must be TPIP, TPID all understand which goods are the problem. Because the scourge of all countries is inflation, the scourge of all countries is inflation," he said.