Prepare Social Care For Handling Inflation 2022, NTB Provincial Government Budget Funds IDR 10 Billion

Regional Secretary (Sekda) NTB, Lalu Gita Ariadi. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

MATARAM - The West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Government has allocated a budget of around Rp. 10 billion as a social cushion in the context of handling the impact of inflation in 2022.

The Regional Secretary (Sekda) of NTB, Lalu Gita Ariadi said, the Rp10 billion budget is equivalent to two percent of the General Transfer Fund (DTU) as instructed by the central government through the Minister of Finance Regulation Number: 134/PMK.07/2022 concerning Mandatory Expenditures in the Context of Handling Impact of Inflation in 2022.

"This provision has become the direct direction of the central government, we are following up according to the existing mechanism," he said, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, September 27.

He explained that as the head of the Regional Inflation Control Team (TAPD), his party had consolidated it with the parties.

"TPID continues to consolidate and observe the dynamics that occur in the market and some efforts such as low-cost market operations and so on continue to be carried out. Hopefully there will be a decline as expected," he said.

The Regional Secretary said that the form of social support that will be carried out by the NTB Provincial Government depends on the implementing instructions (Juklak) and technical instructions (Juknis) from the center. The NTB Provincial Government, said Gita, has had a good experience in distributing social pads during the COVID-19 pandemic through the Gemilang Social Safety Net (JPS) program.

This program absorbs local MSME products and is then distributed to people affected by COVID-19.

"The governor asked how the story of success during COVID-19 used to be in the form of empowering the community so that it could be re-implemented so that in the midst of this inflation, our economic independence is maintained and our MSMEs still exist. So that we also don't depend too much on imported products," he said.

The number of recipients of social support in NTB is being discussed to be right on target. However, the data on recipients of the assistance is consolidated in the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS), the number of which continues to be updated regularly.

It is known, Minister of Finance Regulation Number 134/PMK.07/2022 mandates that each local government allocates a budget of two percent of the General Transfer Fund (DTU) as a social cushion for the October-December 2022 period. This is in order to support the program to deal with the impact of inflation.

The social assistance is expected to be given to certain community groups such as motorcycle taxi drivers, MSME players, fishermen and others. The allocation of this budget will also be directed to job creation and the provision of subsidies in the public transportation sector in the regions.