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Jokowi cannot promise rice aid will last until December
During a visit to Jambi on Thursday, Jokowi said he would check the funds available for the program in June before making a decision on whether to extend the rice aid.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo speaks during the inauguration of the National Defense Central Hospital (RSPPN) in Jakarta on Feb. 19, 2024. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
P
resident Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who will leave office in October, pledged on Thursday that rice aid delivery would continue until June but said he could not guarantee that the program would last until December.
During a visit to Jambi on Thursday, Jokowi said he would check the funds available for the program in June before making a decision on whether to extend the rice aid.
"I will check again in June with our state budget. If budget is available then the program will continue until December […]. If no budget is available, then we’ll have to terminate it, I’ll be frank about it," the President said in a speech.
The Jokowi administration has been handing out 10 kilograms of rice to some 21,000 households each month, ostensibly to fight rice inflation stemming from El Niño and export restrictions imposed by some countries.
The program began in March 2023 and was initially set to last a few months. It was extended multiple times and is now set to end in June of this year, the month slated for any runoff votes in the 2024 general election.
The rice itself comes from government reserves, which were bolstered by the import more than 3 million tonnes of rice in 2023. This year, the government plans to import another 2.5 million tonnes to maintain its reserve levels.
In February, the government decided to halt rice aid distribution in all parts of the country amid widespread allegations that the Jokowi administration had been deploying social aid to persuade people to vote for then-presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
