Jakarta (ANTARA) - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Tuesday informed that the realization of government spending in the 2023 state budget was optimized for the education and social protection sectors.
"The priority of education spending was given to the provision of operational assistance for higher education institutions or BOPTS," she said at the Parliamentary Complex in Jakarta.
She made the statement while delivering the government's response to the views of the House of Representatives' (DPR's) factions on the Bill on Accountability for the Implementation of the 2023 State Budget.
She added that in the social protection sector, spending was prioritized for the provision of El Nino cash assistance and the Pre-Employment Card program.
In addition to BOPTS, the budget for the education sector was used to carry out the Smart Indonesia Program targeting 18.1 million students and the College Smart Indonesia Program for 916,827 university students, she informed.
The budget was also used to provide professional allowance to 2.2 million non-civil servant teachers and incentives to 348.9 thousand non-civil servant teachers and principals.
In the field of social protection, El Nino cash assistance was provided to 18.8 million beneficiary families, while the beneficiaries of the Pre-Employment Card reached 1.1 million.
Besides education and social protection, the realization of the 2023 State Budget spending was also optimized to support food security, the minister stated.
"The government is paying special attention to the food security sector," she affirmed.
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Indrawati noted that the government has implemented several programs to help farmers increase their productivity and welfare.
The support includes the provision of fertilizer subsidies and the superior seed direct assistance program.
The government has also built production facilities, dams, and irrigation canals to ensure water availability during the dry season and El Nino.
She further said that the government is also offering low-interest financing with interest subsidies for people's business credit (KUR) of Rp2.6 trillion (around US$168.3 million) to ensure access to capital for farmers.
