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View all search resultsGovt cuts free meals budget further after mounting pressure
The government has decided to scale back President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free nutritious meal program after growing demands to rethink fiscal priorities amid competing spending needs.
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Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa speaks on Friday during a media briefing in Jakarta. (Antara/Bayu Saputra )
T
he government has decided to scale back President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free nutritious meal program after weeks of nationwide protests demanding a complete suspension.
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa told reporters in a media briefing on Friday that he “did not propose” the cut and that the initiative had come from the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) running the program, whose leadership he had met earlier this week.
He said he approved the planned cut and that “it would be better if they cut even more”.
“I actually want it to be zero, but that’s not possible, the budget is out already, but stopping it altogether is not right either, because it’s a good program. All that’s left to do is improve the implementation,” Purbaya said.
He refused to name the exact amount the program would be cut by but said “the reduction is significant, making our budget more secure” and replied with “maybe” when asked whether the amount was Rp 40 trillion (US$2.2 billion).
The program that aims to feed 83 million schoolchildren, pregnant mothers and other recipients would cost the state some Rp 335 trillion a year when run at full scale. It received an original allocation of Rp 268 trillion in this year’s budget.
Deputy BGN head Agustina Arumsari said on June 18 that the program’s budget had been cut twice this year by a total of Rp 39.62 trillion, bringing the total annual budget to Rp 228 trillion, according to Detik.com.
