CASHLESS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM SHOULD ACHIEVE SET TARGET

By Andi Adussalam

Jakarta, Jan 26 (Antara) - The government's Cashless Food Aid (BPNT) and Social Rice Assistance (Rastra) program should be strengthened and managed optimally to ensure that the intended beneficiary families are covered and poverty in Indonesia is reduced.          The government has set a target to provide BPNT and Rastra assistance to some 15.4 million underprivileged beneficiary families in 2018 in its efforts to lower the poverty rate to a single digit as compared to 10.64 percent, or 27.7 million, of the nation's population in 2017.          Regional government secretaries play an important role in ensuring that assistance under the program reaches the intended beneficiary families.          Head of the National Development Planning Agency Bambang Brojonegoro stated that the BPNT program needs to be strengthened to speed up the realization of its target, thereby accelerating the reduction of poverty to a single digit.          "This BPNT (program) is the spearhead of the efforts to reduce poverty. The other forms of social assistance -- Health Indonesia Card (KIS) and the Smart Indonesia Card (KIP) -- have been relatively well on target. The one that is not yet on target is Rastra. Hence, the key to reach a single-digit target is to strengthen the assistance through BPNT to reach out to the intended recipients," Brojonegoro had noted during a press conference in Jakarta on (Jan 9).