Constitutional Court Orders Free Nutritious Meal Programme Budget Removed from Education Spending

The Constitutional Court has ordered the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) to remove the budget for the Free Nutritious Meal programme, known as MBG, from the education sector allocation in the state budget. The order was delivered in the judicial review ruling for Law Number 17 of 2025 concerning the 2026 State Budget, under case Number 40/PUU-XXIV/2026, pronounced in Jakarta on Thursday. The court has given the government and the DPR until the 2028 state budget to separate the MBG budget from the education allocation, taking into account the specific nature of annual budget drafting. Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih stated that the programme, or any similarly named food distribution scheme, must be removed and separated from the operational definition of education provision so that it no longer uses the education budget allocation in the state budget. In its considerations, the court found that the elucidation of Article 22 paragraph (3) of Law Number 17 of 2025, which stated that operational funding for education includes nutritious meal programmes in general and religious educational institutions, had caused an expansion of meaning. The court held that this had resulted in the non-fulfilment of the mandatory spending principle as mandated by Article 31 paragraphs (2) and (4) of the 1945 Constitution and created legal uncertainty. Therefore, to maintain compliance with the constitutional mandate on education and the state’s obligation to fulfil citizens’ right to education, Article 22 paragraph (3) of Law Number 17 of 2025 was declared conditionally constitutional.