Govt allots Rp 7.8t for rice subsidies
Govt allots Rp 7.8t for rice subsidies
JAKARTA (JP): The government is allocating Rp 7.8 trillion
(US$906.9 million) to provide subsidized rice to about 80 million
poor people for the 1999/2000 fiscal year beginning this month,
State Minister of Food and Horticulture A.M. Saefuddin said on
Wednesday.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting at the Bina Graha
presidential office, the minister said the government would
provide a subsidy of Rp 1,700 per kilogram aimed at helping the
needy.
"The Cabinet has agreed the rice will be sold at Rp 1,000 per
kg and each family will get 20 kg per month," Saefuddin said in a
joint news conference with Minister of Forestry and Plantations
Muslimin Nasution and Minister of Information Lt. Gen. Muhammad
Yusuf.
The minister said the government procured 960,000 metric tons
of rice for the poor last year. He did not specify the amount of
subsidized rice to be sold this fiscal year.
Saefuddin acknowledged the budget provided for cheap rice
procurement was much higher this year. In 1998, the government
spent Rp 1.1 trillion to supply nearly one million metric tons of
rice during its nine-month-long market operations which started
in July.
This year, the government will help 80 million people who are
members of 15.2 million families, including 6.7 million
classified as poor and 4.49 million families whose wage earners
lost their jobs in the crisis.
"There also are two million unregistered urban poor living on
the riverbanks in Jakarta who need our help." He added the number
of poor was expected to grow by 3 percent per month this year.
In a bid to improve the much criticized distribution of cheap
rice last year, President B.J. Habibie ordered Saefuddin to take
into account the suggestions of the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and non-governmental organizations.
Journalists and the two other ministers burst into laughter
when Saefuddin said: "My ministry will open a homepage for the
people who want to get information about the rice distribution".
"I do not think that poor families know how to access the
Internet," Yunus quipped.
Saefuddin dismissed fears the ruling Golkar would use the rice
aid to persuade poor families to vote for the party in the next
general election.
"Oh, remember I am not from Golkar but from the United
Development Party, so I will control it," said Saefuddin.
The minister also announced his office would soon send 1,000
tons of rice to each of the provinces which have suffered social
unrest. These included West Kalimantan, Aceh and Maluku.
East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi,
which also took in thousands of refugees from neighboring
provinces, will receive 500 tons each.
"The free rice aid is aimed to help refugees there," said
Saefuddin. (prb)