Rejang Lebong Budgets Village Religious Teacher Incentives Of IDR 1.8 Billion

The Rejang Lebong Regent's Office, which is located on Jalan S Sukowati Curup. BETWEEN/document

REJANG LEBONG - Rejang Lebong Regency Government, Bengkulu Province, allocated a budget for payment of incentives for village religious teachers who served in 156 villages in the area amounting to Rp1.8 billion. "The budget allocated in the Rejang Lebong Regency APBD for the payment of incentives for village religious teachers in 2023 reached Rp1.8 billion. The incentive amount for village religious teachers is Rp1 million per month and is paid through their respective bank accounts," said Head of the Rejang Lebong Regency Government Werwin Wijaya Kusuma when contacted in Rejang Lebong, Antara, Sunday, July 4. He explained that the number of village religious teachers in the area was 156 people or one person per village. They have been recruited by the local district government for the past few years. The village religious teacher is tasked with becoming a Koran teacher, imam or khatib every day. The existence of village religious teachers, according to him, is very important to help build community morals and to make Rejang Lebong a religious district. In addition to preparing a budget for the payment of village religious teachers, his party this year also prepared incentives for religious apparatus serving in 34 urban villages with a total of Rp. 890 million. According to him, the incentive budget for this kelurahan religious apparatus is allocated in the Rejang Lebong Regency APBD because there is no kelurahan fund. This is different from 122 villages in Rejang Lebong where the payment of incentives for religious devices is borne through the APBDes which is sourced from village funds and village fund allocations. He said the religious devices that received this incentive assistance included the imam of the main mosque of Rp. 600,000/month, the khatib of Rp. 350,000/month, the bilal of Rp. 300,000/month, the gharim of Rp. 300,000/month, and the teacher of the sub-district pilgrimage of Rp. 250,000/month.

"Other religious devices are provided for one device, both for pastors, priests, romo and upasaka of Rp. 400,000/month each," he said.