Jakarta, June 22 (Antara) - The government Saturday began distributing
Rp9.3 trillion cash assistance to the poor and mobilized ministers to
observe its handing out to 15,5 million target families in 15 cities
across the country.
The Rp9.3 trillion temporary direct cash assistance (BLSM) will be
distributed in two phases in June and in September 2013. It is being
provided by the government to alleviate the burden of poor families who
would be affected by the impact of the government's policy to increase
subsidized fuel oil prices.
The government on Friday night raised the prices of subsidized premium
gasoline from Rp4,500 to Rp6,500 per liter and subsidized diesel oil
from Rp4,500 to Rp5,500 per liter. The new prices are effective as of
00.00 a.m on Saturday.
Each poor family will receive Rp150,000 in BLSM assistance per month for four months.
Based on the results of the Cabinet Ministers' plenary meeting chaired
by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday (June 20), the
government will in the first phase distribute the BLSM on June 22 and 24
to recipients amounting to Rp300,000 for each target family in 15
cities across the country.
Based on the assumption that each poor family has four members, the
BLSM will cover about 60 million poor people or about 25 percent of the
country population, which is about 240 million.
As it predicts that it will have wide impact, the government has made
preparations to anticipate the adverse effects of fuel price increase to
help lower income people. It has prepared programs called Acceleration
and Expansion of Social Protection Program (P4S) and a Special Program
The P4S scheme covers three expanded on-going programs, namely the
Raskin program (cheap rice for the poor), family-based poverty
alleviation program called Bantuan Keluarga Harapan (BKH) and
scholarship for poor students (BSM).
The Special Program in the meantime consists of temporary direct
assistance (BLSM) and rural infrastructure development program.
The first phase of the BLSM is distributed immediately after the
announcement of subsidized fuel oil price hike while the assistance in
the first phase will be disbursed next September.
Although
the schedule mentioned that distribution of the second phase is
September, those who had not yet received their allocation after
September could still receive it on December 2 at the latest.
Chief People's Welfare Minister Agung Laksono said poor families should
not worry if they were not yet able to receive assistance based the
schedules because the temporary direct assistance could still be
provided until December 2, 2013.
"There is no need for them to worry about the temporary direct
assistance if they fail to receive it based on schedule. It could still
be distributed until December 2, 2013," Agung said at the Coordinating
Minister's Office here on Saturday following the official announcement
by the government of subsidized fuel price hike on Friday night.
The 15 cities where poor families will receive the assistance across
the country are Yogyakarta, Solo, Surabaya, Malang, Denpasar,
Banjarmasin, Makassar, Ambon, Jayapura, Bogor, Jakarta, Bandung,
Semarang, Medan and Palembang.
"Ministers will be requested to witness the handing over of the
assistance which will begin at 9am," Agung said adding that the presence
of the ministers was to monitor conditions and constraints faced in the
implementation of the assistance.
"The ministers will report to the president the constraints found in the field," he said.
Home
Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi has earlier said that the number of BLSM
recipients was based on population data and their electronic identity
cards (e-KTP).
"We
have a special survey on the number of poor people. The result of the
survey is compared with the number of the poor based on their e-KTP.
This would make it more accurate," the minister told a hearing with
Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Tuesday.
The distribution of the BLSM to the poor is carried out through the
Raskin distribution mechanism, using their e-KTPs which were linked to
their family cards (KK).
Minister Gamawan said that it was planned that the Raskin cards would
also be integrated with other assistance schemes such as the BKH and the
BSM and the scholarships.
"We hope one cards would cover all assistance schemes," Gamawan said.
The same thing was also disclosed by Agung Laksono saying that the
distribution of BLSM would be carried out using the poor people's Raskin
cards. About 15.5 million poor families already had the cards, he said.
"We will use the cards they used to show when they would receive cheap
rice. The Raskin and BLSM programs have the same recipients," the
coordinating minister for people's welfare said.
The government hopes that the assistance programs will reduce the
number of poor people, particularly after the prices of subsidized fuel
are raised.
According
to Finance Minister Chatib Basri, the handing over of temporary direct
assistance to poor people in compensation of the government's planned
subsidized fuel oil price hike will reduce poverty rate.
"(Fuel oil price hike) will not increase the numbers of new poor
people," Chatib Basri told a press conference on the 2013 Revised State
Budget on Tuesday.
He said that if the government did not provide temporary direct
assistance for the poor, subsidized fuel oil price hike would lift the
number of poor people from 10.5 percent to 12.1 percent which meant that
about four million new poor people would be created.
However, the emergence of new poor people would not happen because the
government would provide BLSM for low-income people who account for 25
percent of the population, namely about 15.5 million target families
(RTS).
"With
an assumption that each family consists of four members, about 62
million people will get the temporary direct assistance. So, the number
of those who will get compensation is bigger than those who will become
poor," the minister said.
Therefore, Home Affairs Minister Gamawan stressed that all regional
governments should implement the temporary direct assistance because it
had become the central government policy.
Although there are regional heads that reject the BLSM program, the
home affairs minister reminded that the policy is effective for all
people in all provinces.
"If
the regional heads personally disagree with the program, they would
disadvantage their people. The people do not belong to certain political
parties," he said.
(T.A014/F001 )
(T.SYS/A/A. Abdussalam/F. Assegaf) 22-06-2013 14:1 |
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