National Library Complains to DPR: Book Programme Threatened by Budget Cuts

The Head of the National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas), E Aminudin Aziz, has voiced concerns that the programme distributing free books to every village is under threat of stalling as a result of efficiency measures, or budget reductions, in 2026.

Beyond villages, the book programme is also distributed to reading parks, community health centres (puskesmas) and literacy centres, with each location receiving 1,000 books.

“It is true that with the very drastic budget reduction, work related to literacy has been disrupted,” Aminudin said during a working meeting on the Central Government Financial Report (LKPP) for the 2025 fiscal year before Commission X of the DPR on Thursday (16 July).

“For 2026, we cannot carry it out because there is no money,” he added.

According to Aminudin, the book distribution programme has been running for the past two years.

The programme, he said, has received a positive response from the public.

“One locus [location point] receives 1,000 books. This has been welcomed extraordinarily, put to very good use, and has received a very, very positive response,” he said.

However, in 2026, the programme is at risk of being discontinued due to efficiency measures. Aminudin said Perpusnas received a 2026 indicative ceiling of Rp721.6 billion, but the Ministry of Finance has recently notified a budget block of Rp132 billion.

“That means the effective budget available for use by the National Library is Rp589.5 billion,” he said.

Aminudin noted that the amount blocked this year had previously been used for the literacy programme distributing books to villages and regional libraries.

He added that not only the book distribution programme is under threat, but also several other programmes such as renovations and information and communication technology facilities.

“So this means our plan to mobilise literacy more massively cannot be carried out,” he said.