Bintianingsih Miderawati Djiwandono (left), Soedradjad Djiwandono (middle) walk with their son Budisatrio “Budi“ Djiwandono to attend the inauguration of Thomas Djiwandono as deputy finance minister at the Presidential Palace on July 18, 2024. - Jakarta Post/ANN
JAKARTA (Jakarta Post/ANN): The transition team of president-elect Prabowo Subianto has denied a plan to slash the price per serving for the flagship free meal programme, stressing that no decision has been made yet.
The team’s spokesperson Hasan Nasbi said in a press conference in the capital that the team had only fixed on the estimated total budget of Rp 71 trillion (US$4.37 billion), which it had agreed with the ongoing government as part of discussions for next year’s state budget.
“There were two instructions from the president-elect. Pak Prabowo instructed that [the meals] must meet nutritional standards, that’s the first requirement. [...] And secondly, the number of beneficiaries must be optimized,” said Hasan.
It was local brokerage Verdhana Sekuritas economist Heriyanto Irawan who first revealed the cut in the planned price per serving in an event hosted by state-owned lender Mandiri’s investment manager arm in July 16, as quoted from Kompas.com.
Heriyanto claimed he had been invited by Prabowo’s transition team to discuss the budget for the free meal program, where he found out the team mulled setting price per serving at Rp 7,500 instead of the initial Rp 15,000.
The idea was to feed more schoolchildren without a need to increase the budget on top of the already planned Rp 71 trillion for next year.
It is estimated the envisioned program will cost Rp 460 trillion annually once it reaches its full scale in 2029 to feed 82.9 million schoolchildren, teachers and pregnant women. Fellow team member and Prabowo’s nephew Budisatrio “Budi” Djiwandono denied the claim, saying the Rp 7,500 per serving figure was “speculative”.
The original plan was to set the price at Rp 15,000 or “around US$1” per serving as this was deemed the consensus on the cost for nutritional standards from various international reviews, Budi said.
Prabowo’s transition team Hasan denied that they had ever had a meeting with Heriyanto.
“The standard will be decided by nutritionists,” said Hasan, who added that the menu would vary with the supply and food availability in the regions.
Hasan also said that pilot projects for the programme were underway, from which the incoming government would decide how much it must spend per serving.
The pilots are being conducted nationwide and it would take between two and three months to complete, said Hasan, but he declined to detail how much it would cost.
Hasan only told the pilots involved at least one “service unit” per province with every unit comprising 3,000 children in primary and secondary education.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto gave an assurance that the budget for the free meal program “was not cut”, according to a state-owned news agency Antara article published on Saturday.
Airlangga, who chairs the Golkar Party that backed Prabowo’s presidential bid in February’s election, said the implementation of the program would be adjusted to each region’s food price index. - Jakarta Post/ANN
