Students return empty food trays on Feb 18, 2025, after consuming food distributed through the government’s free nutritious meal programme at SDN Banjarsari 5 state elementary school in Serang, Banten. - Photo: Antara
JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free nutritious meal programme is to receive Rp 171 trillion (US$10.36 billion) this year, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in her Instagram post on Thursday (March 20).
That confirmed a Rp 100 trillion increase of the total budget earmarked for the programme this year from previously Rp 71 trillion.
“On top of ensuring that children and vulnerable groups get adequate nutritional intake, the free meals programme is also hoped to lessen a family’s economic burden and push the local economy,” Sri Mulyani said.
The extra funding derives from a massive budget cut totaling Rp 250 trillion across ministries, state agencies and regional administrations for reallocating to the free meals programme and the new sovereign wealth fund, Daya Anagata Nusantara (Danantara).
As of mid-March, the Finance Ministry had disbursed Rp 710.5 billion, roughly 1 per cent of the originally budgeted Rp 71 trillion fund, and provided free meals to some 2 million beneficiaries, primarily schoolchildren, as well as 1,835 pregnant women and 2,613 breastfeeding mothers.
Elementary school students made up almost half that 2 million figure, followed by junior and senior high school students.
Sri Mulyani said that as of March 12, the programme had established 726 nutritional fulfillment service units (SPPG), the designation for caterers participating in the programme.
National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Dadan Hindayana told reporters on Feb 12 that a large chunk of the state budget savings would be channeled to the free meals programme.
He added that the exact amount would depend on when the agency was ready to deploy the full-scale programme, which was projected to begin in September at the soonest.
According to Dadan, operating the full programme needs Rp 25 trillion per month, so the additional Rp 100 trillion injection was expected to cover this cost for the four months until the end of this year, provided that it launched in September as planned.
The original plan for the free meals programme was designed to expand gradually in several stages over the course of the five-year term of President Prabowo Subianto.
The full-scale implementation was initially scheduled for sometime midway through his presidency, though early estimates put 2029 as a more realistic timing.
However, the President announced in January that the program would be fully implemented by the end of 2025.
Under its initial budget of Rp 71 trillion for this year, the programme was supposed to cover 17.9 million beneficiaries, but then the government increased its fund to Rp 171 trillion and expanded its target to 82.9 million schoolchildren, teachers, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.
The estimated cost per fiscal year for the full programme is Rp 460 trillion, though Prabowo has expressed confidence on multiple occasions that his administration will be able to raise such a staggering amount. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
