Palace to Review Constitutional Court Ruling Banning Use of Education Budget for Free Meals

Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi responded to the Constitutional Court’s decision regarding the policy of using the education budget in the 2026 State Budget Law for the free nutritious meal programme. “Whatever the Constitutional Court’s decision, we will certainly respect it and will study it later, because when it comes to budget matters, we do not stand alone. The budget is something we draft together with our colleagues in the DPR. So we ask for time,” Pras said during an interview on a train journey from Batang to Jakarta on Thursday (30/7).

However, Pras noted that as he was currently out of town, the government had also not yet officially received a copy of the decision. The Constitutional Court partially granted a petition filed by the Taman Belajar Nusantara Foundation regarding the policy of using the education budget in the 2026 State Budget Law for the free nutritious meal programme.

The ruling was read out during a session at the Constitutional Court building in Central Jakarta on Thursday afternoon. The court declared that the education budget in the state budget could no longer be used to implement the free meal programme.

“The verdict. Adjudicates: one, grants the petitioners’ request in part,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo as he read out the ruling on the petition. Suhartoyo stated that the free nutritious meal programme could not be categorised as a core component of education and must therefore be separated, and should no longer be part of the operational budget for education provision.

The court also mandated that the separation of the free meal programme budget from education funds must be carried out starting from the 2027 State Budget Law, or at the latest by the 2028 State Budget Law.