BPS asks for money to meet survey deadline
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has requested the government to disburse the money it says it needs to finish registering by September the number of disadvantaged people eligible to benefit from assistance funds to help cushion the impact of expected fuel price hikes in January.
The money, totaling Rp 252 billion (US$25.8 billion), was needed urgently, BPS director Choiril Maksum said on Thursday, as local governments would need to begin conducting registration within the next two weeks if the September deadline was to be met.
"The Jakarta administration will begin its registration drive on Aug. 15, while other provinces are expected to do so starting Aug. 22," he said.
On Wednesday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the government might raise domestic fuel prices again in January to relieve the pressure on the budget, currently under severe pressure from fuel subsidy spending amid soaring global oil prices.
The hikes, according to Kalla, would only take place if the BPS could wrap up its survey by September.
Choiril explained that the BPS was all set to work with local administrations as long as the central government provided the money needed to pay the assessors conducting the survey.
"The problem is that the field workers are not BPS staff, who could probably be paid later," he said. "They are local government officers, so they have to be paid as soon as their work is done."
The BPS is still waiting for the disbursement of another Rp 202 billion for the registration process, Choiril said. The Ministry of Finance previously paid out Rp 50 billion last month.
Nevertheless, the BPS gave assurances that the registration process would be completed on time -- at least the registration of disadvantaged people portion, with its analysis and report to follow later on -- and that it would cover at least the island of Java, where more than half of the country's 220 million people live.
"We'll work hard to complete it by the end of September, or by early October at the latest," Choiril said.
Meanwhile, State Minister for National Development Planning Sri Mulyani Indrawati has asked the BPS to conduct the registration process carefully and accurately within the allotted timeframe.
"There might be some -- if not a lot -- of people trying to be registered as poor people so that they can benefit from the assistance funds," she said.
Based on the survey, Sri Mulyani added, the government would devise a comprehensive scheme to replace the current fuel subsidies with direct subsidies for education, healthcare services and rural infrastructure development.
"Afterwards, it's all up to the finance ministry to calculate the fiscal impact of the new subsidy scheme, and the President to make the decision," she said.
The government previously cut fuel subsidies in March, leading to an average 29 percent increase in domestic fuel prices. The money saved from the subsidy cuts has been earmarked for assistance funds for low-income families to help mitigate the effects of the resulting surge in inflation.