The State Budget Is Increasingly Focused On Restricting Welfare Through Handling Stunting To Extreme Poverty

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that APBN spending is increasingly focused on improving people's welfare through the realization of social protection programs, such as handling stunting, food security, and extreme poverty that supports economic growth and equity.

According to the Minister of Finance, according to the 2024 RPJMN, the stunting reduction target is 14 percent. Meanwhile, the 2021 achievement was 24.4 percent, a decrease from the estimated prevalence of stunting in 2020 of 26.92 percent.

"This is thanks to the realization of the stunting reduction budget reaching 66.8 percent as of September 30, 2022," he said on Friday, October 21.

The Minister of Finance added that this realization was supported by the realization of the budget in several ministries/agencies that played a role in reducing the stunting rate. The realization of the stunting budget at the Ministry of Social Affairs was 70.8 percent, the Ministry of PUPR 68.7 percent, the Ministry of Health 52.5 percent and the BKKBN 50.89 percent.

"We hope that there are still three months from October to December, these ministries can continue to shop. So, especially children who are stunted will be more helped and then recover," he said.

Meanwhile, food security is an important priority program, especially with the emergence of the world food crisis, the realization of the budget is 40.7 percent as of September 30, 2022. The relevant ministries are the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of PUPR, and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries each realizing Rp9.85 trillion, Rp2.76 trillion, and Rp1.60 trillion.

"We hope that in October-November-December the remaining 60 percent or 59.3 percent of the budget can be realized so that food security, the goals to be achieved can really be built because we will enter 2023 which will be very challenging and we must strengthen the issue of food security and prepare it," he explained.

Finally, for poverty spending in order to reduce extreme poverty, 71.8 percent of ministries/agencies have been realized. According to the 2024 RPJMN, the target for extreme poverty is 0 percent, while the 2021 achievement is 2.14 percent and decreases to 2.04 percent as of March 2022 according to the release of BPS.

"Those are some important programs so that economic recovery is not only measured by economic growth, but we also see from a community welfare perspective," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.