Ombudsman Supports Government Rice Food Assistance Program

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - RI Ombudsman member Yeka Hendra Fatika stated that he supports the government's rice food assistance program, which will continue until June 2024, to help residents in need and stabilize rice prices.

According to Yeka, the rice food assistance program should be given by the government every month and every year. According to him, this task is in line with the constitutional mandate as a form of state presence in ensuring food availability, especially for the poor.

"So, as long as this Republic stands, as long as there are still poor people, the government must distribute food aid to the poor every month," Yeka told reporters in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Saturday, March 16.

In addition, he said that if the food aid program was not extended, it was feared that it would trigger a spike in rice demand.

This year, there are around 22 million families who receive rice food assistance from the government. Yeka estimates that if this assistance is stopped, then tens of millions of people will flock to buy rice to the market.

Yeka also appealed to the government to be aware of the potential increase in rice prices in July, considering that rice stocks in that month are predicted to run low.

Regarding the budget, Yeka believes there should be no problem, because the Indonesian government from year to year always runs the assistance program.

"Unfortunately, inconsistent. For example, the Raskin program was replaced by Rastra. The Rastra program was replaced with the BPNT program. This uncertainty is one of the things that makes it easy for the market to intervene in prices," he said again.

Rice food assistance is a government program in the form of distributing rice to low-income people who are included in the beneficiary families (KPM).

This rice food aid has been carried out since early 2023 and continues this year. The distribution of 10 kg of rice aid per month has been disbursed since January 2024 and will continue until June 2024.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), when handing over the government's rice reserves food assistance at Bulog Warehouse, Cibitung, Bekasi, West Java on February 16, promised that if the APBN was sufficient, the aid would be continued.

"We'll see in the APBN if the government has the ability to continue next. But my promise is until June first. Later, we will calculate the APBN approximately, we still have money, it can be added," said Jokowi.