By: Zakaria )*
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Government has launched various aid schemes to help affected communities. Trillions of Rupiah were disbursed to support social safety net programs.
This variety of assistance is of course expected to ease the burden on the community affected by the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, this assistance is expected to boost the economy which grew by minus 5.32 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
The assistance provided by the government includes:
Basic Food Assistance, Social assistance in the form of basic food packages has been distributed since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in Indonesia in March 2020. This assistance is provided to residents in DKI Jakarta and its surrounding areas, namely Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, South Tangerang and Bekasi.
In DKI Jakarta, basic food assistance is provided to 2.6 million people or 1.2 million families. The amount of basic food given is Rp. 600,000 per month and is given for 3 months. The budget allocated for this assistance is 2.2 trillion.
Meanwhile, basic food assistance for the Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi areas was given to 1.6 million people or 576,000 families.
The amount is the same, which is IDR 600,000 per month for 3 months. The total budget is IDR 1 trillion rupiah.
Thus, there are 4.2 million residents in Jabodetabek who get social assistance in the form of this basic food.
The total value of the basic food items received by each citizen during the three months, namely April, May and June is Rp. 1.8 million.
Later, when the PSBB was relaxed and the economy showed progress, the government continued to extend this program until December, but the value was reduced to IDR 300,000 per month.
Cash Social Assistance, not much different from basic food assistance, this program has also been disbursed since the beginning of the Covid-19 case appeared in Indonesia. The difference is, this cash assistance is targeting residents outside Jabodetabek.
This program provides cash funds of Rp. 600,000 to the community for 3 months, namely April, May and June.
This program also extends until December. However, the value of the cash received was reduced to IDR 300,000.
This assistance is provided for people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, whether or not they are included in the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS) belonging to the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos).
Local governments are given the discretion to propose beneficiaries. The proposed data will then be verified by the Ministry of Social Affairs team to ensure that the person concerned is not included in the list of other central government aid recipients that existed prior to the pandemic, so there is no duplication of data.
Aid is also channeled through transfers to the accounts of individual recipients or through PT Pos Indonesia.
BLT Village Fund, the Government also diverted part of the village fund budget for BLT to face the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Village Fund BLT was disbursed in 2 batches. Each wave consists of 3 stages.
The first stage is given in April, the second stage is in May and the third stage is in June. Per month, each beneficiary family (KPM) receives assistance of Rp. 600,000
Free Electricity, In addition to cash assistance, the government also provides electricity tariff incentives for customers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. These incentives are in the form of bill exemptions, electricity discounts, elimination of minimum fees and elimination of subscriptions.
In addition to expanding the reach of customers, the incentive period was also extended to December 2020.
In the electricity tariff incentive program, the total budget disbursed is Rp. 15.38 trillion for 33.6 million customers of PT PLN (Persero).
Customers who receive subsidized electricity are subsidized 450 VA and 900 VA customers. The electricity bill relief was then extended to MSME businesses, namely 900 VA for business and 900 VA for industry.
Initially, free electricity was only applied for 3 months, but later this policy was extended until the end of the year.
Employee salary subsidies, this is a new policy from the government, to provide subsidies for workers registered with BPJS Ketenagakerjaan with salaries below IDR 5 million.
Salary subsidy recipients will receive assistance of IDR 600,000 per month for 4 months.
All of these assistance schemes are certainly expected to be able to be a savior when economic conditions are unstable.
)* The author is a citizen living in Bogor