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)