State Budget Law on Free Nutritious Meals Programme Challenged in Court; Finance Minister Responds
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has responded to legal challenges against Law Number 17 of 2025 on the 2026 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) concerning the budget allocation for the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme.
Purbaya stated that he has so far only been monitoring developments in the legal proceedings, noting that not all challenges are upheld by the Constitutional Court.
He assessed that the judicial review of Article 22 paragraph (3) of the 2026 APBN Law is relatively weak, meaning the challenge is highly likely to fail in court.
“We shall see what the outcome looks like. A challenge can lose or win. I believe the judicial review is weak. If it is weak, it will certainly lose. But we shall see what the outcome looks like,” Purbaya said in Jakarta on Wednesday, 18 February 2026.
The Constitutional Court has received at least three petitions for judicial review of Law 17 of 2025 on the 2026 APBN, all of which take issue with the financing of the MBG programme.
The three petitions include case number 40/PUU-XXIV/2026, filed by Yayasan Taman Belajar Nusantara; case number 52/PUU-XXIV/2026, submitted by university lecturer Rega Felix; and case number 55/PUU-XXIV/2026, lodged by honorary teacher Reza Sudrajat.
All three petitions uniformly challenge Article 22 paragraph (3) of the 2026 APBN Law and its elucidation, which incorporates the MBG programme into the operational funding for education delivery, drawn from the education budget.
The law stipulates that the education budget shall be allocated at approximately 20 per cent of the total state budget. However, the petitioners are concerned that classifying MBG as part of education operational costs will reduce budget allocations for other essential educational needs.
Accordingly, the petitioners in all three cases have asked the Court to declare that the MBG programme does not fall within the scope of operational funding for education delivery.