Annisa Febiola, Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto revealed that Rp50.14 trillion of the ministry/agency budget has been blocked in order to become one of the financial sources for the temporary unconditional cash transfer (BLT) food risk mitigation and subsidized fertilizer.

The social assistance or BLT is allotted for Rp200,000 per household and the subsidized fertilizer takes up Rp14 trillion.

He explained that automatic adjustment of the State Budget is one of the measures possible for additional funding for social assistance and BLT. Non-priority spending will be temporarily blocked "The Finance Minister utilizes automatic adjustment to fund BLT," Airlangga said on Monday.

Tempo previously reported that the Finance Ministry froze Rp50.14 trillion from the ministry budget in 2024.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati mentioned that Rp11.25 is required to achieve the BPT targets of 18.8 million households. The social assistance will be delivered through Indonesian postal services.

Meanwhile, the subsidized fertilizers budget is increased by Rp14 trillion which will cover an additional target of 2.5 million farmers, from the initial 5.7 million farmers. The previous budget for this program was Rp26.68 trillion.

According to Airlangga, subsidized fertilizer is necessary considering planting season is imminent. President Joko Widodo, he said, has "agreed to approve the additional Rp14 trillion budget".

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1830250/govt-blocks-rp50-14-trillion-of-state-budget-to-fund-bl