Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The free lunch program for Indonesian children will be increasingly realized, after Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka officially become President and Vice President of Indonesia for the 2024-2029 period.
Free lunch was the mainstay program of the two couples when they were running for the 2024 presidential election, until finally the General Election Commission (KPU) was determined as the winner of the presidential election after obtaining 96,216,691 (58.58%) votes during the voting on February 14 2024.
“It's true that my program is lunch for Indonesian children. Why? Almost 25% don't eat breakfast every day,” said Prabowo in a written statement at the beginning of this month, as quoted on Thursday (21/3/2024).
He has also included the lunch program in the vision and mission document entitled Together with Advanced Indonesia. On page 23, it is written in the document that free lunch and milk programs will be provided for school and Islamic boarding school children, as well as nutritional assistance for children under five and pregnant women.
“This is done by providing daily lunches to pre-school, elementary school (SD), junior high school (SMP), senior high school (SMA) and Islamic boarding school students,” the document quoted.
The program is targeted to begin implementing both in 2025, after being inaugurated as president and vice president in October 2024. Member of the National Campaign Team (TKN) Expert Council for Pair number 2, Drajad Hari Wibowo, said that this program would not be immediately implemented in full at 82.9 million students.
Instead, it is prioritized for children in disadvantaged, frontier and outermost areas, even though it is targeted to be 100% complete by 2029. “The priority is the 3T area, so that's the area first,” said Drajad, quoted on Thursday (21/3/2024).
The list of 3T regions is currently listed in the attachment to Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 63 of 2020 concerning the Determination of Disadvantaged Regions for 2020-2024. There are at least 52 regions that meet the 3T criteria from Sumatra Island to Papua.
Deputy Chair of the Prabowo-Gibran TKN Expert Council, Budiman Sudjatmiko, revealed that based on simulations and planning carried out by the Prabowo-Gibran Expert Team, this program will require full-scale financing of up to IDR 450 trillion per year.
“So it is estimated that in stages this program will require financing of IDR 100-IDR 120 trillion rupiah in the first year of Prabowo-Gibran's administration,” said Budiman in a written statement.
The Chairman of the Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team (TKN) who is also the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has confirmed that the budget for free lunches prepared in the 2025 APBN will be IDR 15,000 per child.
“Per child, it's around Rp. 15,000, yes, you can do various things. There will be a detailed discussion later,” said Airlangga when met at his office, Jakarta, Monday (26/2/2024).
As for the menu, from the total budget per child prepared, Airlangga said, it would be handed over to each region. What is clear, he said, is that the budget is outside the free milk program.
“That's apart from milk. (But for the menu) it will be released to each region, we're not making it uniform. But Rp. 15,000 is evenly distributed,” said Airlangga.
Airlangga said that the program had been included in the discussion of the Macroeconomic Framework and Fiscal Policy Principles (KEM-PPKF) during a limited meeting earlier this year. However, this was denied by the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
“We didn't answer about free lunch because we don't have it in the APBN for 2024, right? If this is for the new government, ladies and gentlemen, we also understand the cycle of our APBN. Ladies and gentlemen from KEM-PPKF, there is already a big posture, we haven't reached the details, let alone what we want to take “BOS (School Operational Assistance) funds. Yes, no ma'am, not yet,” said Sri Mulyani when asked about the program budget by members of the council at Commission XI DPR, Tuesday (19/3/2024).
What is clear is that Prabowo-Gibran has now been officially declared by the KPU as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. Thus, Prabowo-Gibran will certainly implement this program during his reign from the end of this year until the next five years.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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(arj/mij)