Bima Arya: Cash Social Assistance is Not Right on Target, Some Are Using it to Buy Eid Clothes
Previously, economist and Executive Director of INDEF, Tauhid Ahmad, regretted that the social assistance budget (bansos) in 2021 was cut to Rp. 12 trillion, from Rp. 39 trillion in 2020. Because the cut made national economic recovery even harder.
“I think this has beenplanning-right from 2020 if the social assistance is extended. It’s just that the budget has fallen by almost half, drastically reduced. With the decreasing social assistance program, it is not proven that they can handle the impact of Covid-19, “said Tauhid Ahmad when contacted by Liputan6.com, Tuesday (2/2/2021).
For information, the social protection budget in 2020 amounting to Rp 128.9 trillion has now become Rp 110 trillion for the 2021 budget. Meanwhile, cash assistance from Rp 39 trillion in 2020 will decrease to Rp 12 trillion in 2021, or a reduction of Rp 27 trillion.
According to him, the recovery process in the economic sector will not go well, because the number of Covid-19 cases is still high. This means that the reduced social assistance budget can make people’s consumption grow.
“In the past period, social assistance is considered quite a lot, but it does not encourage consumption. This means that a lot of social assistance has been issued but it is not on target, the amount is inadequate, then the existence of corruption and so on affects the effectiveness of social assistance as well, “he explained.
Tauhid considered that this proved that the provision of social assistance was not right on target. This inaccuracy causes social assistance recipients not to be used to buy necessities (consumption) but instead save them in banks or third party funds.
“In this situation they know and are on guard, by saving their money in third party funds, usually in short term savings there are also deposits. This means that one day they will reuse. Take a look at BI data, the higher the income level, the higher the change in savings funds, “he explained.
Thus, Tauhid criticized the social assistance budget, which was given a small value, only Rp. 600 thousand. Should the government want to boost the economy to recover this year, the social assistance budget should not be cut and the amount of aid will be increased.
“We have to change the target, namely really those who need it the most, for example the 20 percent of Indonesians who really need it, the amount (social assistance) must be adequate, not small, for example Rp 2.5 million. So that later they will run to consumption not to savings, “he concluded.