Govt has channeled only 30 percent of fuel price hike assistance

Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi said Monday the government had channeled only 30 percent of the temporary direct cash assistance designated as compensation for the recent reduction in fuel subsidies, which has caused higher fuel prices.

"We haven't channeled all the funds," he said at the Economic Affairs Ministry's office in Jakarta, as quoted by Kompas.com.

"The channeling process is still going on and we hope it will be finished by the end of this month," he added.

According to Gamawan, the fund disbursement has been hampered because the heads of regions are still determining who qualified to receive the assistance.

This problem was pinpointed in a meeting of regionals head with Vice President Boediono last week.

"Based on that meeting, we determined the problems in the channeling mechanism that needed to be fixed," he said. "If there is a shortage of funds, we will add some more," he added.

Data from the cash assistance program's official website, Kompensasi.info, indicates that the disbursement had reached 30.2 percent by 11 a. m. on Monday.

Some provinces, such as DKI Jakarta (90.22 percent), Jambi (65.3 percent) and Bali (69.84 percent), had almost completed disbursing the funds.

On the other hand, some other provinces, such as North Sulawesi (9.87 percent), Maluku (8.54 percent), North Maluku (1.34 percent), Papua (2.04 percent) and West Papua (0.55 percent), had disbursed under 10 percent of the funds. (fan)