BPS close to completing survey of low-income people
Urip Hudiono The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Less than a week away from the planned fuel price increase, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) is wrapping up its survey of households eligible for financial help under the government's new benefit scheme.
BPS chief Choiril Maksum said his agency had, as of Monday, registered a total of 15,648,425 low-income households eligible for receiving the payment -- aimed to cushion the impact of the fuel price rise.
The registration has covered 97 percent of the nation's households, with all provinces in the country -- except Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Maluku and Papua -- having been fully surveyed.
Choiril said the list of eligible households would not be finalized until the BPS had cross-checked its figures.
"We have so far only verified 14,549,408 of the households, or 86 percent of the total,
"Some households may be dropped off the list if it later turns out they don't meet the criteria," he said.
To be eligible households must meet 14 criteria set by the BPS, including that each family member earns less than Rp 600,000 (some US$60) per month and that their daily caloric intake is estimated to be no more than 2,100 calories.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono confirmed last week that the government would raise domestic fuel prices on Oct. 1, to cut the cost of fuel subsidies, which is on the rise, due to rising consumption amid a decline in oil production and the recent surge in global oil prices -- putting in jeopardy the state budget's fiscal stability.
The government previously increased fuel prices by an average of 29 percent in March.
The House of Representatives is slated to discuss in a plenary session on Tuesday the government's proposal.
To reduce the impact of the increase on people in the low- income bracket, the government will provide each low-income household with Rp 300,000 (some US$10) in a direct cash transfer every three months after the fuel price increase takes effect.
The government has estimated it will have to set aside Rp 4.65 trillion in funds until the end of the year.
According to Choiril, the government will disburse the benefit payments in stages starting Oct. 1 in 15 of the country's major cities -- including the three most-populated cities of Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan.
The BPS has so far handed over the data of 5,928,368 eligible low-income households to state postal service PT Pos Indonesia, which the government has assigned to distribute the cash.
Elsewhere, speaking at a hearing with House Commission XI for financial affairs, State Minister for National Development Planning Sri Mulyani Indrawati acknowledged the possibility of some eligible low-income households not being registered, but assured that the government would fine tune the scheme over time.
She said that disbursing the payments per quarter would in fact provide time for the monitoring team to update the BPS' data, apart from being more feasible in administrative terms.